Large emerald
The large emerald is a big, beautiful moth as green as a fresh leaf. Its wings have wavy rows of white dots across them. It is so pretty that its scientific name means butterfly-like.
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Fun facts
Its green colour fades after a few days, so freshly hatched moths are the greenest.
In winter the small caterpillar is reddish brown, like a dead leaf or a twig.
In spring the caterpillar turns green and looks just like the birch catkins it eats among.
It flies at night from June to August and is attracted to lights.
It is the moth that its whole big family, the geometer moths, is named after.
Most asked questions about Large emerald
?What does the large emerald eat?
Its caterpillars eat birch leaves, and sometimes alder, beech, hazel and rowan.
?How big is the large emerald?
Its wings measure about 5 to 6.5 centimetres from tip to tip.
?When can you see a large emerald?
At night from June to August, often near lights.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Geometra papilionaria
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Geometridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Geometridae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Large emerald (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 User:Chrkl. 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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