Pale-winged Gray

Iridopsis ephyraria · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Geometridae

Also called: Pale-winged Gray Moth

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Pale-winged Gray
Photo: iNaturalist user, CC0

The pale-winged gray is a moth in the Geometridae family (Iridopsis ephyraria). Its wingspan measures about 23 to 28 mm.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

Iridopsis ephyraria, known as the pale-winged gray, belongs to the Geometridae family.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

The adult’s wingspan ranges from 23 to 28 mm.

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

The caterpillars feed on many woody plants such as ash, fir, birch, chokecherry, hemlock, elm, gooseberry, maple and willow.

Source: Wikipedia

Life cycle

Pimpla pedalis wasp parasitizes the pupae of this moth.

Source: Wikipedia

When you see it

Adults are on the wing from June through September.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 33 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Texas, Wisconsin, New York, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont.

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

Source: GBIF

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

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Questions people ask

When are pale-winged gray moths active?

Adults fly from June to September.

Source: Wikipedia

What do the larvae eat?

They feed on a variety of woody plants including ash, fir, birch, chokecherry, hemlock, elm, gooseberry, maple and willow.

Source: Wikipedia

Same family (Geometridae)

Sources

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

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

Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.

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.