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Sticker of Mournful thyris moth
Bug card No. 2931 of 4,939

Mournful thyris moth

Pseudothyris sepulchralis
Eats: PlantsMothsForests and woods6 legs

The mournful thyris is a small black moth with white spots that flies in the daytime. Its black colour made people think of mourning, which is how it got its sad name. Its caterpillar is a clever little leaf cutter.

Lives in
North America
Wingspan
1.5 to 2.3 cm (0.59 to 0.91 in)
Top speed
about 11 km/h (6.8 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It is a small moth that cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The caterpillars eat the leaves of greenbrier vines. The grown-up moths are only rarely seen visiting flowers.
For real!Photo of Mournful thyris moth
Picture by Jacy Lucier. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Mournful thyris moth wings about 2.3 cm tip to tip (0.91 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
wings as wide as 4 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 34 seconds

How big is Mournful thyris moth compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The caterpillar cuts an almost perfect circle out of a leaf and rolls itself up inside it, like a little sleeping bag.

2

It spends the whole winter in that leafy pouch and comes out the next year.

3

The grown-up moths fly for only two or three weeks each year.

4

Its caterpillar grows to about 18 millimetres long.

you asked

Most asked questions about Mournful thyris moth

?Does the mournful thyris fly at night?

No. Unlike most moths, it flies in the daytime.

?How big is the mournful thyris?

Its wings measure about 15 to 23 millimetres from tip to tip.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Pseudothyris sepulchralis
Group
Moths
Family
Thyrididae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Thyrididae
Lives on
North America
Also known as
Mournful thyris

Where the facts come from

  1. Pseudothyris sepulchralis (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Jacy Lucier. 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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More from the same group: Moths

Also at home here: Forests and woods

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