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Sticker of Slender burnished brass
Bug card No. 3891 of 4,939

Slender burnished brass

Thysanoplusia orichalcea
Eats: PlantsMothsGardens and meadows6 legs

The slender burnished brass is a moth with front wings that shine like polished gold metal. Its head and collar are reddish orange. It came from Indonesia and has spread to many parts of the world.

Lives in
First from Indonesia, now in Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia and New Zealand
Wingspan
3.6 to 4.4 cm (1.4 to 1.7 in)
Top speed
about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its bluish green caterpillars eat many plants, including crops like sunflowers, potatoes and soybeans.
For real!Photo of Slender burnished brass
Picture by JMK. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Slender burnished brass wings about 4.4 cm tip to tip (1.7 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
wings as wide as 7 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 25 seconds

How big is Slender burnished brass compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

In northern Europe it is a traveller that flies in from warmer places.

2

Farmers sometimes catch it with traps that smell like thistle flowers.

3

It flies from August to October.

4

Its body is furry, with little tufts of hair.

you asked

Most asked questions about Slender burnished brass

?Why is it called burnished brass?

Its front wings shine like polished gold-coloured metal.

?What does the slender burnished brass eat?

Its caterpillars eat many plants, including sunflowers, potatoes and soybeans.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Thysanoplusia orichalcea
Named by
Fabricius, 1775
Group
Moths
Family
Noctuidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Noctuidae
Lives on
Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia and Oceania

Where the facts come from

  1. Thysanoplusia orichalcea (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by JMK. 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.

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