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Sticker of Sad underwing
Bug card No. 3716 of 4,939

Sad underwing

Catocala maestosa
Eats: PlantsMothsForests and woods6 legs

The sad underwing is a big moth from the United States. It has a gloomy name, but it is a handsome moth with wings as wide as a grown-up's hand. It grows up on nut trees.

Lives in
The eastern and central United States
Wingspan
7.8 to 9.8 cm (3.1 to 3.9 in)
Top speed
about 22 km/h (14 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat the leaves of pecan, water hickory and black walnut trees.
For real!Photo of Sad underwing
Picture by Hawks DC. CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Sad underwing wings about 9.8 cm tip to tip (3.9 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
wings as wide as 3 toy building brickscould fly across a whole football pitch in 17 seconds

How big is Sad underwing compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It flies from July to October, depending on where it lives.

2

There is probably only one family of moths each year.

3

It lives from New York down to Florida and west to Texas and Minnesota.

you asked

Most asked questions about Sad underwing

?What does the sad underwing eat?

Its caterpillars eat leaves of pecan, hickory and black walnut trees.

?How big is the sad underwing?

Its wings measure 78 to 98 millimetres from tip to tip.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Catocala maestosa
Named by
Hulst, 1884
Group
Moths
Family
Erebidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Erebidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Catocala maestosa (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Hawks DC. CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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