Ruddy streak
The ruddy streak is a very small moth from Australia. It travelled to New Zealand and England, probably hidden in plants that people shipped across the world. Its wings are only about 1.5 centimetres from tip to tip.
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Fun facts
It was first found in England in 1908, in Devon.
The first wild caterpillars in Britain were found in the garden of the Natural History Museum in London in 1998.
Its caterpillar lives in a loose silk tube covered in bits of leaves and droppings.
One was even found in a flour mill.
Most asked questions about Ruddy streak
?Where does the ruddy streak come from?
From Australia. It reached New Zealand and England, probably with imported plants.
?What does the ruddy streak caterpillar eat?
Leaves, both dry fallen ones and fresh ones.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Tachystola acroxantha
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Oecophoridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Oecophoridae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania, Europe
Where the facts come from
- Tachystola acroxantha (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 dhobern. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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