Tree-lichen beauty
Cryphia algae
The tree-lichen beauty is a small moth with pale green wings marked with black. When it sits on a tree trunk covered in lichen, it almost disappears. Its caterpillars eat lichen too.
Lives in
Warm Mediterranean parts of Europe and the Near East
Wingspan
2.4 to 3 cm (0.94 to 1.2 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat the lichens that grow on tree bark.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🍚wings as wide as 5 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 32 seconds
How big is Tree-lichen beauty 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)
Tree-lichen beauty about 12 km/h (7.5 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
Some of these moths have lichen-yellow patches on their wings, which makes them extra pretty.
2
Others are much greyer, with the green hidden under grey.
3
Its caterpillar is grey, bluish on the sides, with a dark line down its back.
4
The moth flies from July to September.
you asked
Most asked questions about Tree-lichen beauty
?What does the tree-lichen beauty eat?
Its caterpillars eat lichens growing on trees.
?How big is the tree-lichen beauty?
With open wings it is about 2.5 to 3 centimetres wide.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Cryphia algae
- Named by
- Fabricius, 1775
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Noctuidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Noctuidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Cryphia algae (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 Accipiter (R. Altenkamp, Berlin). CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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