Common oak moth
Phoberia atomaris
The common oak moth is a North American moth that flies in spring and early summer. Its caterpillars live on oak trees. In some springs there are so many of them that they eat lots of the fresh oak leaves.
Lives in
North America, from Quebec and Ontario to Florida, Kansas and Texas
Wingspan
3.8 cm (1.5 in)
aboutCan it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat the leaves of oak trees, such as the northern red oak.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🍚wings as wide as 6 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 27 seconds
How big is Common oak 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)
Common oak moth about 14 km/h (8.7 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Adults fly from March to July, depending on where they live.
2
It has only one family of young each year.
3
Its caterpillars sometimes strip oak trees of many leaves in spring.
you asked
Most asked questions about Common oak moth
?What does the common oak moth eat?
Its caterpillars eat oak leaves.
?How big is the common oak moth?
Its wings measure about 38 millimetres from tip to tip.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Phoberia atomaris
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Erebidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Erebidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Phoberia atomaris (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 NCBioTeacher. CC0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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