Square-spot rustic
Xestia xanthographa
The square-spot rustic is a grey or brown moth with a big, pale, square-ish spot on each front wing. That spot is how it got its name. It flies at night in late summer and early autumn.
Lives in
Europe, North Africa, Asia and North America, at woodland edges, waste ground and in gardens
Wingspan
3 to 4 cm (1.2 to 1.6 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The moth visits flowers like heather and ragwort. Its caterpillar eats grasses, bedstraw, oak and willow.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🍚wings as wide as 7 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 27 seconds
How big is Square-spot rustic 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)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Square-spot rustic about 14 km/h (8.7 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Its caterpillar stays awake and keeps eating all through the winter.
2
In the north of Scotland some of them are almost black.
3
It comes to lights and to sweet sugary drinks.
4
It flies from July to September.
you asked
Most asked questions about Square-spot rustic
?Why is it called the square-spot rustic?
Because each front wing has a big pale spot that looks like a square.
?What does the square-spot rustic caterpillar eat?
Grasses, bedstraw, oak, willow and other plants.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Xestia xanthographa
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Noctuidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Noctuidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia, North America
Where the facts come from
- Square-spot rustic (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 Nikolai Bulykin. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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