Species Phragmatobia fuliginosa - Ruby Tiger Moth - Hodges#8156

8156

Phragmatobia fuliginosa (Linnaeus, 1758) (1)

Phylogenetic sequence # 930332

Lafontaine & Schmidt (2010) included three species of the genus Phragmatobia in America north of Mexico. (2)

Wingspan 28-34 mm.

Adult: body hairy; head and thorax dark reddish-brown; foreleg with red hair on femur; abdomen red with rows of black spots; wings translucent; forewing dull reddish brown with black reniform spot but no lines; hindwing pale pink with black discal spot and uneven black shading along costal and outer margins.

[adapted from description by Charles Covell]

Larva: early instars are yellowish and gray with sparse tufts of black hair; each abdominal segment with round black dorsolateral spot on each side of midline; later instars are densely hairy black and brown.

northern half of United States and all of Canada, including the arctic

also occurs throughout Eurasia

Damp shrubby or weedy areas bordering rivers, streams, marshes where food plants grow.

The adults are most common from April to October. (3)

The larvae feed on dock (Rumex spp.), goldenrod, ironweed, joe-pye-weed, plantain, skunk cabbage, sunflower, Sweet Gale (Myrica gale) and other plants.

Two generations per year.

Life cycle images:

larva; adult

The adults are nocturnal and attracted to light.

Phragmatobia assimilans (Large Ruby Tiger Moth) and (Phragmatobia lineata) (Lined Ruby Tiger Moth) have faint lines across the forewing, and more extensive red/pink shading on the hindwing .

Newman, J.H. & J.P. Donahue 1966. The genus Phragmatobia in North America, with a description of a new species (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae), The Michigan Entomologist, 1(2). (1)

Powell, J.A. & P.A. Opler, 2009. Moths of Western North America. University of California Press, pl. 47, fig 9; p. 269.(4)

Moth Photographers Group (3)

Pacific Northwest Moths (5)

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) (6)