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Sticker of Orange swift
Bug card No. 3139 of 4,939

Orange swift

Triodia sylvina
Name means: “belonging to a wood (the Latin name sylvina)”
Eats: Nothing as a grown-upMothsGardens and meadows6 legs

The orange swift is a night moth. The male has rich orange front wings with two white bars that make a V shape. The grown-up moths have no mouth tube, so they never visit flowers to drink.

Lives in
Northern, central and southeastern Europe to the Middle East
Wingspan
3.2 to 4.8 cm (1.3 to 1.9 in)
Top speed
about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The grown-up moths do not eat at all. The caterpillars live underground and eat the roots of bracken, dandelions, docks and other plants.
For real!Photo of Orange swift
Picture by unknown author. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Orange swift wings about 4.8 cm tip to tip (1.9 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
wings as wide as 1.5 toy building brickscould fly across a whole football pitch in 25 seconds

How big is Orange swift compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The female does not glue her eggs to a plant. She simply drops them while hovering over the food plants.

2

The caterpillars bore into roots and can feed underground for two years.

3

Females are bigger than males and not as brightly coloured.

4

It flies at night from June to September and is attracted to light.

you asked

Most asked questions about Orange swift

?What does the orange swift eat?

The moth does not eat at all. Its caterpillars eat plant roots underground.

?When can you see an orange swift?

On summer nights from June to September, often near lights.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Triodia sylvina
Named by
Linnaeus, 1761
Group
Moths
Family
Hepialidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Hepialidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia
Also known as
Orange moth

Where the facts come from

  1. Orange swift (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 unknown author. 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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