Walsingham's Moth

Pseudochelaria walsinghami · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Gelechiidae

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Walsingham's Moth
Photo: Paul Bedell, CC BY-SA

Pseudochelaria walsinghami is a small moth with a wingspan of about 17 mm. Its forewings are dark rich brown and bear two brown spots, the first surrounded by raised white scales.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

The forewings are dark rich brown and show two brown spots in the dorsal half, the first at two-fifths of the wing and edged with raised white scales.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

The moth’s wingspan measures roughly 17 mm.

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

The caterpillars are pale green and bear isolated hairs.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

Its native range is North America, specifically the states listed for its habitat.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 26 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Alabama, Maryland, Mississippi, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Status: native in North America; native in Canada. Source: iNaturalist

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Questions people ask

What do the caterpillars look like?

They are pale green with isolated hairs.

Source: Wikipedia

Same family (Gelechiidae)

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudochelaria_walsinghami

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-25 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-25.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.