Dun-bar
Cosmia trapezina
The dun-bar is a common night-flying moth with three thin lines across its front wings. Its colour can be anything from pale buff to dark reddish brown. Its green caterpillar has a surprising secret about what it eats.
Lives in
Almost all of Europe, North Africa and Asia to China, Korea and Japan
Wingspan
2.8 to 3.8 cm (1.1 to 1.5 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars mostly eat leaves of trees and shrubs, but they also eat other caterpillars, sometimes even their own kind.
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 Dun-bar 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)
Dun-bar 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 caterpillar is green with yellow lines and black and white spots.
2
It flies at night from July to September and is drawn to lights and sugary food.
3
It spends the winter as an egg.
4
In the Alps it can live up to 1,600 metres high.
you asked
Most asked questions about Dun-bar
?Do dun-bar caterpillars eat other caterpillars?
Yes. Besides leaves, they eat other caterpillars, and sometimes even each other.
?When does the dun-bar fly?
At night from July to September.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Cosmia trapezina
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Noctuidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Noctuidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Dun-bar (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 Дауд Арсанукаев. CC BY 4.0, 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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