# Brown plume (*Stenoptilia pterodactyla*)

Canonical page: https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-plume  
Data as of: 2026-11-11

The brown plume (Stenoptilia pterodactyla) is a species in the family Pterophoridae, order Lepidoptera. Source checklists list it for 41 countries, including Albania, Andorra and Armenia.

## Quick facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Weight | Not recorded |
| Length | Not recorded |
| Lifespan | Not recorded |
| Main food | Not recorded |
| Habitat | Not recorded |
| Young per litter or clutch | Not recorded |
| Conservation status | Not recorded |
| Countries on record | 41 countries |

## Classification

- kingdom: Animalia
- phylum: Arthropoda
- class: Insecta
- order: Lepidoptera
- family: Pterophoridae
- genus: Stenoptilia
- species: *Stenoptilia pterodactyla* (Linnaeus, 1761)

Synonyms: *Alucita fuscodactyla*, *Alucita ptilodactyla*, *Mimaeseoptilus paludicola*, *Mimaeseoptilus pterodactylus*, *Phalaena pterodactyla*, *Pterophorus fuscus*, *Pterophorus mictidactylus*, *Stenoptilia fuscodactyla*, *Stenoptilia fuscus*, *Stenoptilia paludicola*

## Where it has been recorded

Countries with openly licensed sighting records on GBIF (records in brackets). Recorded sightings, not a definitive range.

Andorra (0), Albania (0), Armenia (0), Austria (0), Bosnia & Herzegovina (0), Belgium (0), Bulgaria (0), Belarus (0), Switzerland (0), Czechia (0), Germany (0), Denmark (0), Estonia (0), Spain (0), Finland (0), France (0), United Kingdom (0), Georgia (0), Greece (0), Croatia (0), Hungary (0), Ireland (0), Iran (0), Italy (0), Kyrgyzstan (0), Kazakhstan (0), Lithuania (0), Luxembourg (0), Latvia (0), North Macedonia (0), Mongolia (0), Malta (0), Netherlands (0), Norway (0), Poland (0), Romania (0), Serbia (0), Russia (0), Sweden (0), Slovakia (0), Türkiye (0)

## Common questions

### Where does the brown plume live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the brown plume for 41 countries, including Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria and Belarus. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

### What kind of animal is the brown plume?

The brown plume (Stenoptilia pterodactyla) belongs to the family Pterophoridae in the order Lepidoptera.

## Sources

- [An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1), CC0 1.0, E096-269. Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
- [AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5), CC BY 4.0, v1. Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5
- [AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7), CC BY 4.0, v7. Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7
- [Catalogue of Life eXtended Release](https://www.checklistbank.org/dataset/316691), CC BY 4.0, 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
- [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org), per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed), 2026-11-11. Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
- [EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1), CC0 1.0, 1.0. Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1
- [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org), CC0 1.0, 2026-11-11. Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
- [Wikipedia (English)](https://en.wikipedia.org), CC BY-SA 4.0, 2026-11-11. Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

Cite as: Brown plume (Stenoptilia pterodactyla). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-plume