American oak beauty
Phaeoura quernaria
The American oak beauty is a moth from eastern North America. Its caterpillars are grey, brown or greenish, and they feed on the leaves of trees. It spends the winter tucked away as a pupa.
Lives in
Eastern North America, west as far as Alberta in Canada, in shrubby places with aspen and cherry
Wingspan
3.7 to 5.6 cm (1.5 to 2.2 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat the leaves of trees like birch, willow, poplar and cherry.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🧱wings as wide as 2 toy building bricks⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 22 seconds
How big is American oak beauty 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)
American oak beauty about 17 km/h (11 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 wings measure about 4 to 5.5 centimetres from tip to tip.
2
In the warm south the moths can fly from February to October, and there are two families each year.
3
You can find the caterpillars from June to October.
4
It spends the winter as a pupa and comes out as a moth when it gets warm again.
you asked
Most asked questions about American oak beauty
?What does the American oak beauty caterpillar eat?
Leaves of trees like birch, willow, poplar and cherry.
?Is the American oak beauty dangerous?
No. It is a harmless moth.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Phaeoura quernaria
- Named by
- Smith, 1797
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Geometridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Geometridae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Oak beauty
Where the facts come from
- Phaeoura quernaria (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 Cyndy Sims Parr. CC BY-SA 2.0, 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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