Wood White vs Green Oak Tortrix

Side-by-side species comparison

Attribute Wood White Green Oak Tortrix
Scientific Name Leptidea sinapis Tortrix viridana
Order Lepidoptera Lepidoptera
Family Pieridae Tortricidae
Size 36-48 mm wingspan 20-24 mm wingspan
Habitat Meadows Woodlands
Diet Omnivores Herbivores
Regions Europe, western Asia Europe, Western Asia, North Africa
Conservation Least Concern Least Concern

Wood White

A delicate, fluttery butterfly with rounded white wings and a small grey wingtip patch. It has a weak, dancing flight close to the ground.

💡

Did You Know?

It was recently discovered to be a complex of three cryptic species indistinguishable by appearance alone.

Green Oak Tortrix

A small bright green moth with pale hindwings that is the most important oak defoliator in Europe. Outbreak years can turn whole oak canopies brown by June.

💡

Did You Know?

Defoliation by this moth has shaped oak woodland ecology for thousands of years.