Black-tipped ermine
The black-tipped ermine is a small white moth sprinkled with rows of tiny black dots, like the white winter fur of an ermine. It has a bigger black spot on each front wing and a black mark at the tip. Its legs and long feelers are white.
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Fun facts
The caterpillars live together and spin big silk webs that can cover a whole tree.
The silk web is their shared home and keeps them safe while they grow.
There are two generations each year, with moths in April and May and again in August.
The moths fly at night and come to lights.
A fully grown caterpillar is about 2 centimetres long.
Most asked questions about Black-tipped ermine
?Why is it called an ermine moth?
Its white wings with tiny black dots look like the spotted white fur of an ermine.
?What do black-tipped ermine caterpillars eat?
Only the European spindle bush. They live together in silk webs on it.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Yponomeuta plumbella
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Yponomeutidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Yponomeutidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Yponomeuta plumbella (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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