Common wainscot
Mythimna pallens
Name means: “pale”
The common wainscot is a pale, straw-coloured moth with light lines along the veins of its front wings. Its back wings are pure white. It flies at night and likes to visit lights and flowers.
Lives in
From Ireland across Europe and Russia to Central Asia and the Kuril Islands, in grassy places
Wingspan
3.2 to 4 cm (1.3 to 1.6 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Moths cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat grasses. The moths visit flowers and sweet, sugary things.
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 27 seconds
How big is Common wainscot 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)
Common wainscot about 14 km/h (8.7 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Its scientific name pallens means pale, because it lacks the darker marks of its relatives.
2
It spends the winter as a small caterpillar.
3
In Britain the moths can fly any time from June to October.
4
Its caterpillars eat grasses such as fescue and ryegrass.
you asked
Most asked questions about Common wainscot
?What does the common wainscot eat?
Its caterpillars eat grasses. The moths drink from flowers and sugary things.
?How big is the common wainscot?
Its wingspan is about 3 to 4 centimetres.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Mythimna pallens
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Noctuidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Noctuidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Mythimna pallens (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 James K. Lindsey. CC BY-SA 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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