Calliteara pudibunda
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
Calliteara pudibunda, the pale tussock, is a moth of the family Erebidae. The Dutch common name for the moth (Meriansborstel) comes from the butterfly and insect painter Maria Sibylla Merian. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. It is found in Asia and Europe.
Calliteara pudibunda is a pest of European beech forests (Fagus sylvatica). The mix of tree species impacts the moths; they react very sensitively to the occurrence of a small portion of spruce trees within beech stands.
The wingspan is 40–60 mm. Female: Forewing greyish white dusted with dark, and bearing dark wavy transverse lines edged with pure white on the inner side. Hindwing white with indication of a dark submarginal band. Male: Forewing olive grey with black median area and darker indistinct slightly wavy transverse lines in the marginal and basal areas. Hindwing greyish yellow, with a transverse band which is slightly more distinct than in the female, and sometimes forms an elbowed anal. Form juglandis Hübner is divergent in the male, being distinguished by a greyish-white head and thorax (in typical specimens this is... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Snowdonia National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 2 | Biebrza National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 3 | Triglav National Park | 🇸🇮 Slovenia | |
| 4 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 5 | Cévennes National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 6 | Białowieża National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 7 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 8 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kharkiv | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | |
| 2 | Manchester | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 3 | Liverpool | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 4 | Berlin | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 5 | London | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 6 | Birmingham | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 7 | Cologne | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 8 | Stockholm | 🇸🇪 Sweden | |
| 9 | Hamburg | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 10 | Essen | 🇩🇪 Germany |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Pale Tussock Moth sighting in Wadden Sea National Park on a given day, based on 17 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 361st most-seen of the 818 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May–June and September
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Pale Tussock Moth in Wadden Sea National Park on a given day, against under 5% in July–August and October–April, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Pale Tussock Moth sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
8th of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Pale Tussock Moth sightings, Wadden Sea National Park ranks 8th at under 5%. The best odds are in Snowdonia National Park (United Kingdom, about 30%), Biebrza National Park (Poland, about 20%) and Triglav National Park (Slovenia, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Pale Tussock Moth is recorded against all the insects logged in Wadden Sea National Park (17 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
