Smoky wainscot
Mythimna impura
The smoky wainscot is a pale, straw-coloured moth with fine lines along the veins of its wings. It has a dark smoky streak on each front wing. Its grey back wings have white edges.
Lives in
Europe and Asia, from Ireland and the Arctic Circle to Spain and east to Japan, in grassy places
Wingspan
3.1 to 3.8 cm (1.2 to 1.5 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat many kinds of grasses, and also sedges and rushes.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🍚wings as wide as 6 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 27 seconds
How big is Smoky 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)
Smoky 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
It flies at night and is drawn to lights, sugar and flowers.
2
It spends the winter as a small caterpillar.
3
It is very hard to tell apart from some of its close relatives.
4
Adults can be seen from June to October.
you asked
Most asked questions about Smoky wainscot
?What does the smoky wainscot eat?
Its caterpillars eat grasses, sedges and rushes.
?How big is the smoky wainscot?
Its wings measure about 31 to 38 millimetres from tip to tip.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Mythimna impura
- Named by
- Hübner, 1808
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Noctuidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Noctuidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Mythimna impura (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 gailhampshire from Cradley, Malvern, U.K. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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