The Yellow Moth (Dysphania sagana) is a nocturnal insect in the Geometridae family.

The Yellow Moth is bright yellow with blackish edges and two bands of semi-transparent white spots on its fore-wings (front wings). Its hind-wings (back wings) are bright yellow with small black spots. Its head, thorax, and abdomen are yellow.

Yellow Moth

It measures about 8 centimetres (3 inches) in length.

The Yellow Moth is found in Asia in southern Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, the Malaysia Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo.

It is nocturnal, active at night. It sips liquid and pollen with its proboscis.

The female lays up to 200 eggs on a plant leaf. The eggs hatch after 6-8 days into caterpillars, which eat leaves. After about 20 days, it makes a casing around itself, called a cocoon. It undergoes metamorphosis and about 7 days later it emerges from the cocoon as an adult moth.

Yellow Moth

Photographer: Martina Nicolls

Martina Nicolls: SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM