Fall Webworm Moth
Hyphantria cunea
Insecta
COMMON
Stats
- Lifespan
- A few weeks
- Size
- Small
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Activity
- Nocturnal
- Social
- Colony
- Biome
- Temperate forest
- Range
- North America
- Movement
- Flight
- Breeding
- Egg-laying
- Defense
- Camouflage
- Status
- Common
About
The Fall Webworm Moth is a small, mostly white moth whose caterpillars are infamous for spinning large communal silk webs over tree branch tips in late summer — a single colony can contain hundreds of larvae and envelop several feet of foliage before they disperse to pupate.
Life cycle
- 1.eggA tiny ribbed egg laid on the underside of a host-plant leaf, hatching within days.
- 2.caterpillarA voracious caterpillar feeds and molts through several instars, growing rapidly.
- 3.cocoonA silk cocoon spun in leaf litter or soil while the body remodels into a winged adult.
- 4.mothA winged adult with feathery antennae and scaled wings, most active after dark.
Learn more
Taxonomy
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Arthropoda
- Class
- Insecta
- Order
- Lepidoptera
- Family
- Erebidae
- Genus
- Hyphantria
- Species
- Hyphantria cunea