Turnip moth
The turnip moth is a brownish night moth. Its front wings can be pale, dark or almost black, and its back wings are white or pearly grey. Its grey caterpillars live in the soil and are famous garden pests.
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Fun facts
Its caterpillars are called cutworms, because they chew through young plants right at the ground, so the plants fall over.
The caterpillars eat an enormous number of different plants, even pine trees and tobacco.
It flies at night and is drawn to lights and sweet-smelling flowers.
It can travel long distances.
It spends the winter as a caterpillar in the soil.
Most asked questions about Turnip moth
?What is a cutworm?
It is the caterpillar of moths like the turnip moth. It chews young plants at the ground so they fall over.
?What do turnip moth caterpillars eat?
Roots and stems of many plants, especially root vegetables like turnips and also cereals.
?When does the turnip moth fly?
At night. In Britain it flies in May and June and again in August and September.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Agrotis segetum
- Named by
- Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Noctuidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Noctuidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa
- Also known as
- Common cutworm
Where the facts come from
- Turnip moth (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 Adrian Tync. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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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