home

Carpet Moth or Tapestry Moth - Trichophaga tapetzella

Phylum: Arthropoda - Class: Insecta - Order: Lepidoptera - Family: Tineidae

Trichophaga tapetzella

This moth used to be frequently found indoors where it would feed on carpets, curtains and various articles of clothing. It is far less common today probably because most homes are now centrally heated and the temperatures are too high.

Carpet Moths make their homes in birds' nests where the larvae feed on dead and discarded matter. The larvae live in cases which they transport with them, (rather like some aquatic Caddis fly species)

The adult moths are easily recognized by their two-coloured wings - black towards the head and irridescent white behind.

The wingspan of the Carpet Moth is around 19 mm.

The adult moths fly at night from May and August.

Distribution

This moth is widespread and common throughout Britain, Ireland and is found throughout northern Europe.

Picture: Rob Petley-Jones

Studying butterflies and moths...


Excited at the prospect of flyfishing? So are we, and we're pretty sure you would find the Winding River Mystery trilogy of action-packed thrillers gripping reading too. Dead Drift, Dead Cert, and Dead End are Pat O'Reilly's latest river-and-flyfishing based novels, and now they are available in ebook format. Full details on our website here...

Buy each book for just £4.96 on Amazon...


Please Help Us: If you have found this information interesting and useful, please consider helping to keep First Nature online by making a small donation towards the web hosting and internet costs.

Any donations over and above the essential running costs will help support the conservation work of Plantlife, the Rivers Trust and charitable botanic gardens - as do author royalties and publisher proceeds from books by Pat and Sue.

© 1995 - 2024 First Nature: a not-for-profit volunteer-run resource

Please help to keep this free resource online...

Terms of use - Privacy policy - Disable cookies - Links policy