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Sticker of Scalloped oak
Bug card No. 3755 of 4,939

Scalloped oak

Crocallis elinguaria
Eats: PlantsMothsGardens and meadows6 legs

The scalloped oak is a night moth with yellowish wings and a broad orange-brown band across the middle. In the band sits one small black dot. Its caterpillar is grey and looks just like a little twig.

Lives in
From Europe all the way to eastern Siberia, in woods, heaths, hedges, parks and gardens
Wingspan
3.2 to 4.6 cm (1.3 to 1.8 in)
Top speed
about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting people, so you can watch it up close.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat the leaves of many trees and shrubs, and sometimes even smaller caterpillars.
For real!Photo of Scalloped oak
Picture by Bj.schoenmakers. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Scalloped oak wings about 4.6 cm tip to tip (1.8 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 8 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 25 seconds

How big is Scalloped oak compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its twig-like caterpillar can sit very still on a branch and blend right in.

2

Its caterpillar is not only a leaf eater. It may also eat smaller caterpillars.

3

It spends the winter as an egg.

4

The moths fly from July to September and sometimes come to lights in large numbers.

you asked

Most asked questions about Scalloped oak

?What does the scalloped oak caterpillar look like?

It is grey or brownish and looks just like a small twig.

?How big is the scalloped oak moth?

Its wingspan is about 32 to 46 millimetres.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Crocallis elinguaria
Named by
Linnaeus, 1758
Group
Moths
Family
Geometridae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Geometridae
Lives on
Europe, Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Scalloped oak (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 Bj.schoenmakers. CC0, 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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More from the same group: Moths

Also at home here: Gardens and meadows

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