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Sticker of Wandering sunset
Bug card No. 4624 of 4,939

Wandering sunset

Uresiphita gilvata
Eats: PlantsMothsGardens and meadows6 legs

The wandering sunset is a small moth with greyish brown front wings. Hidden underneath are back wings in bright yellow with a black edge, like a little sunset. It flies late in the year, in autumn.

Lives in
Europe and North Africa
Wingspan
2.9 to 3.7 cm (1.1 to 1.5 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 low plants, such as gorse and broom.
For real!Photo of Wandering sunset
Picture by Engeser. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Wandering sunset wings about 3.7 cm tip to tip (1.5 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 Wandering sunset compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The grown-up moths fly in September and October.

2

The lines on its wings can be faint on one moth and clear on another.

3

It was first described by the scientist Johan Christian Fabricius in 1794.

you asked

Most asked questions about Wandering sunset

?Is the wandering sunset harmful?

No. It is a small moth that cannot bite or sting.

?What does the wandering sunset caterpillar eat?

Low plants such as gorse and broom.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Uresiphita gilvata
Named by
Fabricius, 1794
Group
Moths
Family
Crambidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Crambidae
Lives on
Europe, Africa

Where the facts come from

  1. Uresiphita gilvata (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 Engeser. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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

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