Brown-tail moth
The brown-tail moth is a fluffy white moth with a little tuft of brown hair at the end of its body, like a paintbrush. Its caterpillars are brown and very hairy, with two red dots near the tail. They spend most of the year as caterpillars, sleeping together in silky tents in the trees.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
How big is Brown-tail moth compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It spends about nine months of the year as a caterpillar, and only about one month each as egg, cocoon and moth.
A mother lays one clump of 200 to 400 eggs and covers it with brown hairs from her own tail.
In winter the caterpillars hide together in a tough silk tent made of leaves at the tip of a branch.
The tiny caterpillar hairs can blow around in the wind and stay itchy for up to three years.
Hundreds of years ago, so many of these caterpillars hatched in Paris, London and Berlin that they stripped the trees of all their leaves.
Most asked questions about Brown-tail moth
?What does the brown-tail moth look like?
It is a white, hairy moth with a brown tuft at the end of its body. Its wings are about 4 centimetres across.
?What do brown-tail caterpillars eat?
The leaves of many trees, such as pear, apple, maple and oak.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Euproctis chrysorrhoea
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Erebidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Erebidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa, North America
Where the facts come from
- Brown-tail moth (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 Donald Hobern from Canberra, Australia. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
Atlas moth
Luna moth
Hummingbird hawk-moth
Domestic silk moth
Isabella tiger moth
Polyphemus moth
Japanese giant mantis
Grey field slug
Fall field cricket
Common garden katydid
Fencepost jumping spider
Mexican bean beetle