White plume moth
The white plume moth is pure white, and its wings are split into five thin, feathery plumes. It looks like a tiny feather or a snowflake fairy. When it rests, it rolls its wings up tight and sits in the shape of a letter T.
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Fun facts
Each front wing is split into two feathery strips and each back wing into three.
It comes out at dusk and flies in early summer.
The caterpillar is green with a yellow stripe on its back and tufts of pale hairs.
It spends the winter as a tiny caterpillar.
In Nigeria its caterpillars nibble sweet potato plants, which are cousins of bindweed.
Most asked questions about White plume moth
?Why does the white plume moth look like a feather?
Its wings are split into five narrow plumes with soft fringes, like little feathers.
?What does the white plume moth eat?
Its caterpillar eats bindweed leaves and flowers.
?How big is the white plume moth?
Its wings are about 3 centimetres from tip to tip.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Pterophorus pentadactyla
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Pterophoridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Pterophoridae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa
Where the facts come from
- Pterophorus pentadactyla (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 Ivar Leidus. 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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