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Sticker of Oak hook-tip
Bug card No. 3066 of 4,939

Oak hook-tip

Watsonalla binaria
Name means: “named for the hook-shaped tips of its front wings”
Eats: PlantsMothsForests and woods6 legs

The oak hook-tip is an orange brown moth with thin yellow lines across its wings. The tips of its front wings are bent like little hooks. Its caterpillars love oak trees.

Lives in
Most of Europe except the far north, in oak woods
Wingspan
3 to 3.5 cm (1.2 to 1.4 in)
the female is bigger than the male
Top speed
about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars mostly eat oak leaves, and sometimes alder, beech and birch.
For real!Photo of Oak hook-tip
Picture by Olei. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Oak hook-tip wings about 3.5 cm tip to tip (1.4 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 6 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 29 seconds

How big is Oak hook-tip compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

There are usually two families each year. The second one has smaller, lighter coloured moths.

2

It mostly flies at night and comes to lights, but sometimes it flies in the daytime too.

3

Its caterpillar is brown with yellow marks and has a pointy, tapered tail end.

4

It spends the winter as a pupa.

5

It is common in England and Wales, but it has only recently reached Ireland.

you asked

Most asked questions about Oak hook-tip

?Why is it called the oak hook-tip?

Its caterpillars mostly eat oak leaves, and the tips of its front wings are hooked.

?Is the oak hook-tip dangerous?

No. It is a harmless moth.

?How big is the oak hook-tip?

Its wings measure about 3 centimetres across in males and about 3.5 centimetres in females.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Watsonalla binaria
Named by
Hufnagel, 1767
Group
Moths
Family
Drepanidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Drepanidae
Lives on
Europe

Where the facts come from

  1. Oak hook-tip (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 Olei. 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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More from the same group: Moths

Also at home here: Forests and woods

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