Salt marsh moth
The salt marsh moth is a white moth with little black spots on its wings and an orange belly with a row of black dots. The male has yellow-orange back wings, and the female's are white. Its caterpillar is very hairy, like a little fuzzy brush.
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Fun facts
Its caterpillar grows to about 5 centimetres long and can be pale yellow, rusty orange or almost black.
It builds its cocoon partly out of its own hairs, often wrapped in a leaf.
It spends the winter as a caterpillar inside its cocoon and only turns into a pupa in spring.
It can eat plants that are poisonous to many animals and even turn the poison into a special scent to find a mate.
In southern Florida and southern Texas you can see it all year round.
Most asked questions about Salt marsh moth
?What does the salt marsh caterpillar eat?
Lots of plants, like dandelions, cabbage, cotton, potato, clover and corn.
?How big is a salt marsh moth?
Its wings are about 4,5 to 6,8 centimetres across.
?Is the salt marsh caterpillar dangerous?
No, it is harmless. Just look at it gently.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Estigmene acrea
- Named by
- Drury, 1773
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Erebidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Erebidae
- Lives on
- North America, South America
- Also known as
- Acrea moth
Where the facts come from
- Estigmene acrea (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 Meganmccarty. Public domain, 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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