Puss moth
The puss moth is so fluffy that it looks like a little white kitten with wings. Its pale wings have wavy dark lines. Its green caterpillar is even more amazing: it has a forked tail with two red whips.
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Fun facts
When a caterpillar is bothered, it rears up, shows its red face and waves its two tails with pink whips.
If that does not scare the enemy away, the caterpillar can squirt formic acid.
The caterpillar grows to about 8 centimetres long. It is black at first and later turns bright green.
It spends the winter as a pupa in a super hard cocoon made stronger with bits of wood.
One kind of puss moth even has the scientific name estonica, after Estonia.
Most asked questions about Puss moth
?Why is it called puss moth?
Because its head and body are so fluffy that it looks like a cat.
?What does a puss moth caterpillar eat?
Leaves of willows and poplars, especially aspen.
?Is the puss moth caterpillar dangerous?
No, but it can squirt a bit of acid if you poke it, so do not touch it.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Cerura vinula
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Notodontidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Notodontidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Cerura vinula (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 Mark Fosh. 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.
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