Wood leopard moth
Its caterpillars tunnel inside living branches of over 150 kinds of trees and shrubs, often taking two to three years before emerging as a spotted white moth.
| Where | Gardens, orchards, parks and open woodland |
|---|---|
| Size | 35 to 60 mm wingspan |
| When | June to August |
The wood leopard moth is a large white moth with a stout, furry white thorax marked by six dark spots and wings scattered with dark spots, giving it a leopard-like pattern. Males have feathery antennae while females carry a simple thread-like pair.
Caterpillars bore into the wood of living branches and trunks across more than 150 kinds of trees and shrubs, weakening limbs and sometimes causing them to break. Development is slow, often taking two to three years before the caterpillar pupates and the adult moth emerges in summer.
Traits
Habitat
Garden
Colour
White, Black
Active
Night
To people
Attracted to light; harmless to people, though caterpillars can damage garden and orchard trees.
Activity through the year
Often confused with
Much larger at about 68 to 96 mm wingspan, with plain grey-brown wings lacking the wood leopard moth's white ground colour and dark spots.
Questions
Is the Wood leopard moth dangerous to people?
Attracted to light; harmless to people, though caterpillars can damage garden and orchard trees.
When can you see the Wood leopard moth?
The Wood leopard moth can be seen from June to August, at night.
Plate retouched from a photo by Rasbak, CC BY‑SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons Licence
The plate on this page is shared under the same licence as its source, CC BY-SA.
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Butterflies and moths›Carpenter moths›Zeuzera
Last updated 2026-09-26. Every entry is checked against published sources.