Mullein moth

The mullein moth (Cucullia verbasci) is a medium-sized noctuid moth, wingspan 45–56 mm, whose bark-streaked grey forewings give resting adults near-perfect camouflage against dead stems. Its larvae - among the most distinctive caterpillars in Europe, patterned in vivid yellow, black, and white - feed conspicuously on the leaves of mulleins (Verbascum) and figworts (Scrophularia), and in gardens also on buddleja (Buddleja), frequently stripping plants to bare stems. The species has a Palearctic distribution across western, southern, and central Europe and North Africa, extending east to western Afghanistan; it occupies dry, warm open habitats including gardens where Verbascum or Buddleja are grown. Adults fly from April to June in a single annual generation.

Larval host plants · 1

Western, southern, and central Europe and North Africa, north only to Denmark and southern Estonia, east to western Afghanistan; also Israel and Turkey. In the Alps recorded to 1,600 m. In the UK it is widespread in England, most common in the south, scarcer in Wales, absent from Scotland and Ireland.