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 Arctia parthenos - St. Lawrence Tiger Moth - Hodges#8162

St. Lawrence Tiger Moth - Arctia parthenos Catocalinae? - Arctia parthenos Unknown Moth - Arctia parthenos Platarctia parthenos - Arctia parthenos Moth with white-spotted red-brown forewings and yellow or orange hindwings with black arcs - Arctia parthenos Brown Moth with white flecks and hairy back - Arctia parthenos moth - Arctia parthenos Arctia parthenos
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 Noctuoidea (Owlet Moths and kin)
Family Erebidae
Subfamily Arctiinae (Tiger and Lichen Moths)
Tribe Arctiini (Tiger Moths)
Subtribe Arctiina
Genus Arctia
Species parthenos (St. Lawrence Tiger Moth - Hodges#8162)
Hodges Number
8162
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Arctia parthenos Harris, 1850
moved back from Platarctia
Numbers
One of four species in the genus for North America north of Mexico.(1)
Size
wingspan 50-65 mm
Identification
Adult: forewing brown with white or pale yellowish spots and bars (but not continuous lines); hindwing bright yellow with black PM band joined at one or more places to large black basal patch
Range
Newfoundland and Labrador to the tundra of Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Alaska, south in the east to Michigan (and in the Appalachians to North Carolina), and south in the Rockies to Arizona and New Mexico
Habitat
boreal mixed woods and parklands, moist shrubby arctic tundra, mountains in the south
Season
adults fly from June to August (peak numbers from mid-June to early July in the north)
larvae take two years to complete development, and are active during the short northern summer, but dormant under the snow for much of each year
Food
larvae feed on leaves of alder, aspen, birch, and willow in the wild, and have been reared in captivity on bedstraw, dandelion, lettuce, and snowberry
Life Cycle
semivoltine: one generation every two years; spends the first winter as a fifth-instar larva, and the second winter as an eighth-instar larva
See Also
Great Tiger Moth (Arctia caja) forewing has continuous white lines, and hindwing has large dark blue spots outlined in black (compare images of both species at CBIF)
Print References
Lafontaine JD, Schmidt BC (2010) Annotated check list of the Noctuoidea (Insecta, Lepidoptera) of North America north of Mexico,p. 18.(1)
Ronka, K., J. Mappes, L. Kaila, N. Wahlberg, 2016. Putting Parasemia in its phylogenetic place: a molecular analysis of the subtribe Arctiina (Lepidoptera). Systematic Entomology, 41(4): 844-853.(2)
Internet References
distribution in Canada list of provinces and territories (U. of Alberta, using CBIF data)