Velvetbean caterpillar moth
This greyish-brown moth has wavy zigzag lines across its wings. It comes from warm lands and travels north every year. Its caterpillar is a real show-off when disturbed: it jumps into the air and wriggles like crazy.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
When a caterpillar is disturbed, it spits out a brown liquid, springs into the air and wriggles a lot.
The caterpillars are black or green with thin light stripes on the back and sides.
Its eggs do best at about 25 degrees Celsius, a warm summer day.
Every season these moths migrate north from the warm south of the United States.
Most asked questions about Velvetbean caterpillar moth
?What does the velvetbean caterpillar eat?
Bean plants of many kinds, like velvet beans, soybeans and peanuts, and also cotton and alfalfa.
?What does the velvetbean caterpillar do when it is disturbed?
It spits out a brown liquid, jumps up into the air and wriggles wildly.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Anticarsia gemmatalis
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Erebidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Erebidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Velvetbean caterpillar, Velvetbean moth
Where the facts come from
- Anticarsia gemmatalis (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 NCBioTeacher. CC0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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