The delicate
Mythimna vitellina
The delicate is a soft looking night moth with pale yellow wings, often blushed with orange red. Its back wings are almost white. It is mostly a moth of warm southern lands.
Lives in
Southern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and western China
Wingspan
3.6 to 4.3 cm (1.4 to 1.7 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The caterpillars eat different kinds of grasses.
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 25 seconds
How big is The delicate 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)
The delicate about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It is much rarer further north in Europe than in the south.
2
Paler moths with whiter back wings are rare in western Europe but are the usual kind in Syria.
3
Its caterpillar is a pale peachy tan with white stripes along its back.
you asked
Most asked questions about The delicate
?What does the delicate eat?
Its caterpillars eat grasses.
?How big is the delicate moth?
Its open wings are 36 to 43 millimetres wide.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Mythimna vitellina
- Named by
- Hübner, 1808
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Noctuidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Noctuidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Mythimna vitellina (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 Fvlamoen. 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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