Sooty-winged chalcoela moth
The sooty-winged chalcoela is a small moth with a yellow orange head and body. The back parts of its wings are grey and silver with black spots. Its caterpillars have a sneaky secret: they live inside wasp nests.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its caterpillars sneak into wasp nests at night, when the wasps cannot see them.
Inside the nest, a caterpillar moves from cell to cell, eating the baby wasps.
When it is ready, it spins its cocoon inside an empty cell of the nest.
The wasps do not throw it out. Sometimes they just leave and build a new nest somewhere else.
Most asked questions about Sooty-winged chalcoela moth
?What does the sooty-winged chalcoela caterpillar eat?
It eats the larvae and pupae of paper wasps, right inside their nest.
?When can you see the sooty-winged chalcoela?
The grown up moths fly from May to August.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Chalcoela iphitalis
- Named by
- Walker, 1859
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Crambidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Crambidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Sooty-winged chalcoela
Where the facts come from
- Chalcoela iphitalis (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 Cody Hough. 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.
Bug Wiki honey jar For grown-ups: Bug Wiki is free, with no ads and no tracking. A small tip helps keep it online.Leave a tip
Atlas moth
Luna moth
Hummingbird hawk-moth
Domestic silk moth
Isabella tiger moth
Polyphemus moth
Red bull ant
Rosy wolfsnail
Common eastern bumblebee
Great golden digger wasp
Small tortoiseshell
Western tiger swallowtail