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Painted Tiger Moth and Eggs

Arachnis picta

Published on Project Noah
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33.1468, -117.009

Field Notes

Description:

Gray, black and white moth with a red abdomen underneath wings and on front legs. The underside of the wings are gray, red and gold. Eggs are small, round and pearly white. The newly hatched eggs & caterpillars can be seen at spotting: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/7922443. "The wingspan is about 50 mm. The moth flies during the summer." - Wikipedia

Habitat:

Unknown species of Acacia tree in backyard near orchard. The range is from "Central and southern California to Colorado, south to western Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona" - BugGuide According to Wikipedia, the range is "... the South-Western United States and the bordering parts of Mexico."

Notes:

I submitted images of the baby caterpillars to BugGuide at: http://bugguide.net/node/view/598303

Reference Links:

Painted Tiger Moth - Arachnis picta - BugGuide.Net

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (20)
Jacob Gorneau
Amazing; I will add one of your spottings as the mission icon for a week if you add more info!!!
CindyBinghamKeiser
Thank you BonzPondriiztour and textless! She was so pretty and the eggs just glowed! My latest spotting shows how they look nearly purple a day before the caterpillars emerge (last image of that series).
AntónioGinjaGinja
fantastic spot cindy" the eggs look like pearls"i agreed whith Atul and the moment exact of the posture that you spot,in rigth time,perfect and very cool
Darwin26
ummmmm Tiger Moth roe - sauted w/ waffers and a dash of spices. serve warm or cold.
Atul
superb spotting the eggs look like pearls
CindyBinghamKeiser
Thank you Dan, KarenL and Craig! The eggs were just as pretty as the moth :) The unknown tree can be seen at: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/7138970 It's next to an orchard of oranges, lemons, peaches and avocados.
craigwilliams
Really cool. Be good to see the tree it was laying on too. The Wiki just lists herbacious plants as food plants including Raddish and Acanthus
Dan Doucette
Nice spotting! Cool that you caught it with the eggs too.

Spotted for Missions

Mission
Butterflies & Moths of the World
Mission
Southern California Wildlife
Mission
Eggs of the World
Mission
Moths of the World
Mission
National Geographic's Great Nature Project

Tags

Photographed
PublishedNovember 3, 2011

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