Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar
Upcoming Events

Photos of insects and people from the 2024 BugGuide gathering in Idaho July 24-27

Moth submissions from National Moth Week 2024

Photos of insects and people from the 2022 BugGuide gathering in New Mexico, July 20-24

Photos of insects and people from the Spring 2021 gathering in Louisiana, April 28-May 2

Photos of insects and people from the 2019 gathering in Louisiana, July 25-27

Photos of insects and people from the 2018 gathering in Virginia, July 27-29


Previous events


TaxonomyBrowse
Info
ImagesLinksBooksData

Species Yponomeuta multipunctella - American Ermine Moth - Hodges#2420

American Ermine Moth - Hodges#2420 - Yponomeuta multipunctella 2420 - Yponomeuta multipunctella Hodges #2420 - American Ermine Moth - Yponomeuta multipunctella American Ermine Moth - Yponomeuta multipunctella American Ermine Moth - Yponomeuta multipunctella American ermine moth - Yponomeuta multipunctella Moth to porch light  - Yponomeuta multipunctella ?Ermine moth - Yponomeuta multipunctella
Show images of: caterpillars · adults · both
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
Superfamily Yponomeutoidea (Ermine Moths and kin)
Family Yponomeutidae (Ermine Moths)
Subfamily Yponomeutinae
Genus Yponomeuta
Species multipunctella (American Ermine Moth - Hodges#2420)
Hodges Number
2420
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Yponomeuta multipunctella (Clemens, 1860)
Hyponomeuta multipunctella Clemens, 1860
Hyponomeuta euonymella Chambers, 1872
Hyponomeuta leucothorax Meyrick, 1913
Hyponomeuta orbimaculella Chambers, 1873
Hyponomeuta ordinatella Walker, 1863
Hyponomeuta semialba Meyrick, 1913
Size
wingspan 20-25 mm
Identification
Adult: forewing white with three or four longitudinal rows of round black spots (usually more than 40 spots on each wing); hindwing mostly white; legs completely white
Range
southeastern Canada and eastern half of United States
Habitat
woodlots, parks, gardens, suburban yards
Season
Univoltine on Block Island, RI, with adult records from early July through mid-August.(1)
Food
larvae feed on Euonymus spp.
Life Cycle
larvae construct communal webs among the foliage of Nannyberry and Highbush Cranberry (Viburnum spp.) and Euonymus plants
Remarks
Adults of this species are abundant from late-June to mid-July in southern Ontario, where the larval host plant is presumably Running Strawberry-bush (Euonymus obovata), a low trailing shrub that forms much of the ground cover in woodlots throughout the region.
See Also
Streaked Ethmia (Ethmia longimaculella) forewing has elongated black streaks, not round black spots, and its legs are banded black-and-white, not completely white; the Streaked Ethmia also has a chunkier body and appears two or three weeks earlier in the season than the American Ermine
Orchard Ermine Moth (Y. padella) has less than 30 spots on forewing
Print References
Clemens, 1860: 8. (2)
Meyrick, E., 1913. Exotic Microlepidoptera, 1: 139. (Y. semialba description)
Internet References
Moth Photographers Group - photos of live and pinned adults.
BOLD - species account with photos of pinned adults and DNA sequence
live adult images (Dean Edwards, Tennessee)
adult images (Larry Line, Maryland)
Works Cited
1.Block Island Moths
2.Contributions to American lepidopterology
Clemens, B. 1860. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 12: 4–15, 156–174, 203–221, 345–362, 522–547.