Striped hawk-moth
The striped hawk-moth is a fast, strong moth with olive brown wings covered in white stripes. When it opens its front wings, it shows bright pink back wings. It is a great traveller that flies all the way from Africa to Europe.
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Fun facts
Its pink back wings have black and white edges.
Its caterpillar is green with black markings and can grow up to 8 centimetres long.
In Europe you can see it in late spring and again in late summer.
It got its name from the Italian town of Livorno, where the first one was found.
For a long time scientists thought it was the same moth as one that lives in America.
Most asked questions about Striped hawk-moth
?How big is the striped hawk-moth?
Its wings are 60 to 80 millimetres across, and the females are a little bigger than the males.
?What do striped hawk-moth caterpillars eat?
Lots of different plants, such as bedstraw, docks, grapevines, fuchsias and snapdragons.
?Is the striped hawk-moth dangerous?
No, it is completely harmless.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Hyles livornica
- Named by
- Esper, 1780
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Sphingidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Sphingidae
- Lives on
- Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Hyles livornica (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 Eric SYLVESTRE. CC BY-SA 2.5, 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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