Grey dagger
The grey dagger is a grey moth with sharp black marks on its wings that look like little daggers. It flies at night and likes bright lights. Its caterpillar is even more eye-catching: black and hairy, with a yellow stripe down its back, red spots and a little horn behind its head.
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Fun facts
It looks almost exactly like its cousin the dark dagger. Even experts often need a microscope to tell them apart.
But the caterpillars are easy to tell apart: only the grey dagger caterpillar has the little horn.
It spends the winter as a pupa, waiting for summer.
The moths fly at night from June to August.
Most asked questions about Grey dagger
?Is the grey dagger caterpillar poisonous?
It is not known to be dangerous, but it is hairy, so it is best to look and not touch.
?What does the grey dagger caterpillar eat?
The leaves of many different trees and shrubs.
?How big is the grey dagger moth?
Its wings measure about 3.5 to 4.5 centimetres from tip to tip.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Acronicta psi
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Noctuidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Noctuidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Grey dagger (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 Olei. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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.
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