agreeable tiger moth

Agreeable tiger moth is a common, medium-sized, tiger moth. It occurs throughout the united States and southern Canada, but is most common east of the Great Plains and is mostly absent from the southwest. In Minnesota it is uncommon in the east and north but absent from the southwestern third of the state. Adults are found between late May and early July in a wide variety of open and forested habitats. Larvae are food generalists, feeding on a wide variety of herbaceous and woody plants, including dandelion, plantain, and pigweed.

Adults are ⅝″ to 15⁄16″(15 to 24 mm) in length and have a 11⁄16″ to 1⅞″ (27 to 47 mm) wingspan.

The head is white. The compound eyes are black and prominent. The antennae on the male are feathery, with extensions along both sides of the shaft (bipectinate). They are wider on males than on females. They are white above. black below.

The body is robust. The thorax is densely covered with long white hairs. The abdomen is white without any yellow markings.

The wings are pure white. The forewing may be unspotted but usually has postmedial (PM) and subterminal (ST) rows of small black spots, and sometimes a few spots representing the antemedial (AM) and basal lines. The hindwing has a small spot in the discal cell but is otherwise unmarked.

The first segment of the front legs (coxa) is yellowish-orange. The third segment (femur) is densely covered with long yellowish-orange hairs above, long white hairs below. The fourth segment (tibia) is densely covered with white hairs. The tibia on the hind leg has two pairs of spurs, one pair at the tip (apical) and another pair just before the tip (preapical). The last part of the leg (tarsus), corresponding to the foot, is black.

Total length: ⅝″ to 15⁄16″(15 to 24 mm)

Wingspan: 11⁄16″ to 1⅞″ (27 to 47 mm)

Virginian tiger moth (Spilosoma virginica) abdomen is white with yellow patches and a row of black spots on each side. The forewing is less spotted, with no spots or just a few dark spots.

A wide variety of open and forested habitats

One generation per year in Minnesota

All available records from Minnesota are between late May and early July.

A wide variety of herbaceous and woody plants, including dandelion, plantain, and pigweed.

Larva have been reported boring into mushroom stems.

Sources

4, 21, 24, 29, 30, 71, 75, 82, 83.

Until recently, tiger moths and lichen moths were treated as a separate family Arctiidae. A recently published monograph (Lafontaine and Schmidt, 2010) contended that the Arctiidae “were more closely related to groups within the Noctuidae than to non-noctuid families.” The Arctiidae were transferred intact to the family Erebidae as a subfamily (Arctiinae). The former subfamilies are now tribes and the former tribes are now subtribes.

I took the pictures in my backyard in La Crescent, MN yesterday. It was clinging to a grass stem.

Species Spilosoma congrua - Agreeable Tiger Moth - Hodges#8134
Scott

Michelle F.
6/24/2024

Location: Roseville, MN

Location: La Crescent, MN.

I took the pictures in my backyard in La Crescent, MN yesterday. It was clinging to a grass stem.