Virginia ctenucha moth
Ctenucha virginica
The Virginia ctenucha moth has dark wings, a shiny metallic blue-green body and a bright yellow-orange head. Its feelers look like tiny feathers. It flies in the daytime and visits flowers.
Lives in
Eastern North America, and now across all of Canada, in grassy places
Wingspan
4 to 5 cm (1.6 to 2 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The grown-ups drink nectar from flowers such as goldenrod. The caterpillars eat grasses, irises and sedges.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🧱wings as wide as 1.5 toy building bricks⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 24 seconds
How big is Virginia ctenucha moth compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Virginia ctenucha moth about 16 km/h (9.9 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Its caterpillar is about 2 to 2.5 centimetres long and covered in tufts of white and yellow hair.
2
In the last 60 years it has spread west and now lives in every province of Canada.
3
Its wings can be black or olive brown.
you asked
Most asked questions about Virginia ctenucha moth
?What does the Virginia ctenucha eat?
The moth drinks flower nectar. The caterpillar eats grasses, irises and sedges.
?Is the Virginia ctenucha moth harmful?
No. It is harmless to people.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Ctenucha virginica
- Named by
- Esper, 1794
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Erebidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Erebidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Virginia ctenucha
Where the facts come from
- Ctenucha virginica (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 (c) Caleb Catto, some rights reserved (CC BY). 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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