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Sticker of Tulip-tree silkmoth
Bug card No. 4456 of 4,939

Tulip-tree silkmoth

Callosamia angulifera
Eats: Nothing as a grown-upMothsForests and woods6 legs

The tulip-tree silkmoth is a big, beautiful silk moth from North America. Its wings can be wider than a grown-up's hand. Its caterpillar is a fussy eater that only eats the leaves of the tulip tree.

Lives in
Eastern North America, from Massachusetts and southern Ontario to Florida and Mississippi
Wingspan
8 to 11 cm (3.1 to 4.3 in)
Top speed
about 23 km/h (14 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The grown-up moth does not eat at all. Its caterpillar eats only tulip tree leaves.
For real!Photo of Tulip-tree silkmoth
Picture by NCBioTeacher. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Tulip-tree silkmoth wings about 11 cm tip to tip (4.3 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 your handcould fly across a whole football pitch in 16 seconds

How big is Tulip-tree silkmoth compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The grown-up moth never eats, so it lives only on the energy it stored as a caterpillar.

2

In the north it has one family a year, flying from June to August.

3

In the south it has two families a year, flying in spring and again in August.

you asked

Most asked questions about Tulip-tree silkmoth

?What does the tulip-tree silkmoth eat?

Only its caterpillar eats, and only tulip tree leaves. The adult moth does not eat at all.

?How big is the tulip-tree silkmoth?

Its wings measure about 8 to 11 centimetres from tip to tip.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Callosamia angulifera
Named by
Walker, 1855
Group
Moths
Family
Saturniidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Saturniidae
Lives on
North America
Also known as
Tuliptree silkmoth, Giant silkmoth

Where the facts come from

  1. Callosamia angulifera (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 NCBioTeacher. CC0, 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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