Bug card No. 4920 of 4,939

Yellow-striped armyworm moth

Spodoptera ornithogalli

Eats: Plants MothsGardens and meadows6 legs

The yellow-striped armyworm moth is a brown night moth with tan markings and a blurry white stripe near the wing tip. Its back wings are white with a thin brown edge. Its caterpillar is black with thin yellow stripes along its sides.

Lives in

North, Central and South America, from Canada down to Argentina

Wingspan

3.2 to 4.4 cm (1.3 to 1.7 in)

Top speed

about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)

Flying, estimate

Can it hurt you?

Harmless

Harmless to people. Farmers do not like it, because its caterpillars eat crops.

What does it eat?

The caterpillar eats lots of different plants, including corn, cotton, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, cabbage and roses.

Photo of Yellow-striped armyworm moth — Picture by University of Georgia Archive. CC BY 3.0 us, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

wings as wide as 7 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 25 seconds

How big is Yellow-striped armyworm 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)

A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)

Yellow-striped armyworm moth about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)

A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)

cool stuff

Fun facts

The caterpillar eats more than 30 kinds of crops, from asparagus to watermelon.

The moths fly from April to November, depending on where they live.

Sometimes it is found hiding in boxes of asparagus shipped to Europe, but it does not live there.

Scientists once thought it was the same moth as a similar one from Africa and Europe.

you asked

Most asked questions about Yellow-striped armyworm moth

?What does the yellow-striped armyworm eat?

Its caterpillar eats many crops, such as corn, cotton, tomatoes, potatoes and beans.

?What does a yellow-striped armyworm look like?

The caterpillar is black with thin yellow stripes on its sides. The moth is brown with a white smudge near the wing tip.

For bug experts

Scientific name: Spodoptera ornithogalli
Group: Moths
Family: Noctuidae
Classification: Insecta > Lepidoptera > Noctuidae
Lives on: North America, South America
Also known as: Yellow-striped armyworm, Cotton cutworm

Where the facts come from

Spodoptera ornithogalli (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 University of Georgia Archive. CC BY 3.0 us, 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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