The clay
Mythimna ferrago
The clay is a moth with wings the colour of clay, from pale buff to orange brown. It has a dark line running along each front wing with a small pale spot in it. It flies on summer nights and is drawn to lights and sugary things.
Lives in
Europe, North Africa and across Asia to Tibet, in meadows and other grassy places
Wingspan
3.6 to 4.4 cm (1.4 to 1.7 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat different grasses.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🍚wings as wide as 7 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 25 seconds
How big is The clay compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
The clay about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
The boy has a triangle of black hair on the underside of his body.
2
It lives in almost every grassy place, from warm dry slopes to cool wet meadows.
3
In the Alps it lives up to 1,700 metres high.
4
It spends the winter as a small caterpillar.
you asked
Most asked questions about The clay
?What does the clay moth eat?
Its caterpillars eat grasses.
?When does the clay moth fly?
At night in July and August.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Mythimna ferrago
- Named by
- Fabricius, 1787
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Noctuidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Noctuidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia
- Also known as
- Clay
Where the facts come from
- Mythimna ferrago (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 David Short from Windsor, UK. CC BY 2.0, 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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