HEPIALIDAE

There are five members of this family, all resident. They all feed on or inside the roots of their foodplant and are subterranean. All are capable of running backwards when disturbed
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Common Name Latin Name Food plant(s) Description
Ghost Moth   Heplialus humuli   Grasses and other plants including dock, nettle, dandelion and burdock   Glossy dirty white, head reddish-brown and shining, orange-brown prothoracic plate, spiracles dark brown. Widespread throughout most of the British Isles.
Orange Swift   Hepialus sylvana   Bracken, dock, dandelion and other plants.   Glossy dirty white, orange-brown head, spiracles dark brown. Widespread throughout most of the British Isles.

Gold Swift

  Hepialus hecta   Bracken   Whitish-grey and wrinkled, shining chestnut head, greyish-brown plates dorsally and laterally on segments, spiracles black. Local, but widely distributed,
Common Swift   Hepialus lupulinus   Grasses, dock etc.   Greyish-white, glossy, head reddish-brown, orange prothoracic plate, each segment has several dark hairs that grow from small orange warts. Two-year life-cycle entirely underground. Common and widespread.
Map-winged Swift   Hepialus fusconebulosa   Bracken and other plants   Yellowish-white, head reddish or purplish-brown, thoracic plates are orange, warts orange with short bristles. More frequent in the northern counties.