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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Butterflies and Moths (Lepidoptera) » Owlet Moths and kin (Noctuoidea) » Erebidae » Tiger and Lichen Moths (Arctiinae) » Tiger Moths (Arctiini) » Spilosomina » Spilosoma » Wandering Tiger - Hodges#8138 (Spilosoma vagans)
Photo#1766585
red-orange moth - Spilosoma vagans - female
Copyright © 2019 Adam Schneider

red-orange moth - Spilosoma vagans - Female
Silver Star Mountain, Skamania County, Washington, USA
June 22, 2013
Size: 2 cm
I'd thought this was a ruby tiger moth (Phragmatobia fuliginosa), but all the photos I've seen of those have a prominent black dot in the middle of the wing. This one is uniformly red-orange... and its abdomen appears to be yellow.

I'd say it's a Virbia, but do any of them live on the west coast?

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red-orange moth - Spilosoma vagans - female red-orange moth - Spilosoma vagans - female red-orange moth - Spilosoma vagans - female
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Contributed by Adam Schneider on 29 December, 2019 - 6:36pm
Last updated 31 December, 2019 - 10:27am

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

Female
… Bob Biagi, 31 December, 2019 - 10:27am login or register to post comments

 
Not Spilosoma pteridis?
The potential problem with the S. vagans ID is the location. The PNW Moths page about S. vagans says that it's "absent from western Washington and British Columbia." Whereas for S. pteridis, it says "this species is most common in western Oregon and Washington."

Maybe it's better to bump this one back up to Spilosoma sp.
… Adam Schneider, 31 December, 2019 - 11:42am login or register to post comments

How about Spilosoma vagans
Images here.
Highly variable.
… cwmelton, 29 December, 2019 - 10:51pm login or register to post comments

 
wow, extremely variable
It does like a better match overall than Virbia. Seems like it could be either Spilosoma vagans or Spilosoma pteridis.
… Adam Schneider, 30 December, 2019 - 12:08am login or register to post comments

Can't give you an ID, but we
Can't give you an ID, but we do have west coast Virbia, including some caterpillars from WA. See the BugGuide distribution map for the genus here.
… Kelsey J.R.P. Byers, 29 December, 2019 - 6:56pm login or register to post comments

 
Yeah, I saw that...
Too bad we don't know which species they are!
… Adam Schneider, 29 December, 2019 - 7:12pm login or register to post comments

 
Yeah - the common problem wit
Yeah - the common problem with cats unfortunately.

Looks like the 3 BC records are all Virbia ferruginosa, as is the Alberta record, so I would naively guess that species...
… Kelsey J.R.P. Byers, 29 December, 2019 - 7:14pm login or register to post comments

 
hmm...
I did a Google image search for that species, and I'm skeptical. The "posture" seems different, and it's not as colorful.

It's entirely possible that I'm barking up the wrong genus anyway; mine seems a bit fuzzier than most Virbia photos.
… Adam Schneider, 29 December, 2019 - 7:22pm login or register to post comments

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