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Sticker of Red-necked footman
Bug card No. 3586 of 4,939

Red-necked footman

Atolmis rubricollis
Eats: Fungus and mouldMothsForests and woods6 legs

The red-necked footman is a small, almost black moth with a bright orange-red collar behind its head. The tip of its body is golden yellow. It folds its wings tightly around its body, with neat square ends.

Lives in
Europe and across northern Asia to China, in cool woodland
Wingspan
2.5 to 3.5 cm (0.98 to 1.4 in)
Top speed
about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat lichens, the crusty grey green growths on tree trunks and branches.
For real!Photo of Red-necked footman
Picture by Syrio. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Red-necked footman wings about 3.5 cm tip to tip (1.4 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 6 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 29 seconds

How big is Red-necked footman compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its caterpillar has a black head with a bold white stripe on each side.

2

The caterpillar has tiny reddish yellow bumps with black hairs on each body ring.

3

In the daytime the moths like to rest on long fir branches hanging over woodland paths.

4

It spends the winter as a shiny reddish brown pupa hidden in moss and fallen leaves.

5

It mostly flies at night, but sometimes also by day.

you asked

Most asked questions about Red-necked footman

?What does the red-necked footman eat?

Its caterpillars eat lichens growing on trees.

?Where does the red-necked footman live?

In woods across Europe and northern Asia, especially in spruce and fir trees.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Atolmis rubricollis
Named by
Linnaeus, 1758
Group
Moths
Family
Erebidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Erebidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Atolmis rubricollis (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 Syrio. 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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More from the same group: Moths

Also at home here: Forests and woods

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