Hawaiian beet webworm moth
Spoladea recurvalis
The Hawaiian beet webworm moth is a small moth that lives in warm places all around the world. Its caterpillars are called webworms. They are well known to farmers, because they like the same vegetables that we eat.
Lives in
All around the world, mostly in the tropics, in fields and gardens
Wingspan
2.2 to 2.4 cm (0.87 to 0.94 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The caterpillars eat spinach, beet, cotton, maize and soybean plants.
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 Hawaiian beet webworm moth 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)
Hawaiian beet webworm moth 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
It lives on almost every continent, but mostly where it is warm.
2
A fully grown caterpillar is about 19 millimetres long.
3
The moths fly from May to September, depending on where they live.
you asked
Most asked questions about Hawaiian beet webworm moth
?What does the beet webworm eat?
Its caterpillars eat spinach, beets, cotton, maize and soybeans.
?How big is the Hawaiian beet webworm moth?
Its wings are only about 2 centimetres across.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Spoladea recurvalis
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Crambidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Crambidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Beet webworm moth
Where the facts come from
- Spoladea recurvalis (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 Bruce Marlin. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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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