The sallow

The sallow is a pale yellow moth with brown marks on its wings, like an autumn leaf. It flies in late summer and autumn, when leaves start to turn yellow. Its caterpillars live on willow trees.

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Fun facts
Sallow is an old name for a willow tree, which is where its caterpillars live.
Some of these moths are plain yellow with no brown marks at all.
It looks a lot like another moth, the pink-barred sallow, and even their caterpillars are hard to tell apart.
It flies from July to October.
Most asked questions about The sallow
?What does the sallow eat?
Its caterpillars eat willow and poplar.
?How big is the sallow?
With open wings it is about 2.7 to 3.5 centimetres wide.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Xanthia icteritia
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Noctuidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Noctuidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Xanthia icteritia (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 Ivar Leidus. CC BY-SA 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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