Dark-banded owlet
Phalaenophana pyramusalis
The dark-banded owlet is a small moth from North America. Its caterpillars have an unusual taste: they eat dead leaves instead of fresh green ones. They like them best when they are wet, black and rotting.
Lives in
North America, from Saskatchewan to Nova Scotia and south to North Carolina and Texas
Wingspan
2.1 to 2.5 cm (0.83 to 0.98 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat dead leaves, especially damp, blackened ones that are rotting away.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🍚wings as wide as 4 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 34 seconds
How big is Dark-banded owlet compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
Dark-banded owlet about 11 km/h (6.8 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
By eating rotting leaves, its caterpillars help clean up the forest floor.
2
There are two or more families of these moths each year.
3
In Alberta the moths fly in June and July.
you asked
Most asked questions about Dark-banded owlet
?What does the dark-banded owlet eat?
Its caterpillars eat dead leaves, especially wet, blackened, rotting ones.
?How big is the dark-banded owlet?
Its wings measure about 21 to 25 millimetres from tip to tip.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Phalaenophana pyramusalis
- Named by
- Walker, 1859
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Erebidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Erebidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Phalaenophana pyramusalis (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 Beatriz Moisset. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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