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Helpston's wildlife

Beautiful china mark

The beautiful china mark is a small moth that can be found in the reeds at the edge of the main pond at Swaddywell in the summer moths.

Unusually the larvae of this species of moth are aquatic. Most moths at the larval stage take the form of the more familiar caterpillar, feeding on plants and grasses. The larvae of the chinamarks live in the ponds feeding on aquatic vegetation.