Species Details

ABH: 72.015

BF: 2028

Family: Erebidae

Subfamily: Lymantriinae

Taxon: Calliteara pudibunda

Authority: (Linnaeus, 1758)

Vernacular: Pale Tussock

Account: Common in gardens, hedgerows, parks, woodland and scrub throughout England, female 59-68 mm. Unmistakable. Larva feeds on various broad-leaved trees and shrubs, including Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Crab Apple, Pedunculate and Sessile Oak, Silver and Downy Birch, Hazel, Lime and Elm, over-wintering as a pupa.

Accounts provided by and used with the kind permission of Mike Wall, Hampshire County Moth Recorder. These will in due course be gradually replaced with species accounts with a Surrey context.

Wingspan: male 48 — 51 mm; female 59 — 68 mm

Surrey Flight Period: 13 Apr (2022) — 5 Jul (1991)

The flight period of overwintering adults are not given. See the flight chart below the distribution map.

Foodplant: Humulus lupulus (Hop), Polyphagous.

Foodplant accounts are from the HOSTS database — Natural History Museum, London, UK. (CC0).

Status: Least Concern (LC)

UK BAP:

WCA:

Click here to view the full geology map of Surrey.

Verification Grade: 1 — Relatively easily identified 👌

Further Information: https://www.ukmoths.org.uk/species/calliteara-pudibunda/

Statistics

* Based on adult records only.

Records: 987

Individuals: 646

Earliest Year: 1892

Latest Year: 2025

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