The giant leopard moth (''Hypercompe scribonia'') is a
moth
Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...
of the family
Erebidae
The Erebidae are a family of moths in the superfamily Noctuoidea. The family is among the largest families of moths by species count and contains a wide variety of well-known macromoth groups. The family includes the underwings ('' Catocala'' ...
. They are distributed through North America from southern
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, and southern and eastern United States through
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
and south to
Colombia.
The obsolete name, ''Ecpantheria scribonia,'' is still occasionally encountered.
This species has a
wingspan
The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan o ...
of . The wings of this moth are bright white with a pattern of neat black blotches, some solid and some hollow. The overside of the abdomen is dark blue with orange markings, while the underside is white with solid black spots, and males have a narrow yellow line on the sides. Their legs have black and white bands. Adult moths are strictly
nocturnal
Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite.
Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...
and do not generally fly before nightfall.
This species has a notable sexual dimorphism in size, the adult male reaching about in length, while the adult female grows up to . In Missouri, adults are on the wing from May to September and are
multivoltine
Voltinism is a term used in biology to indicate the number of broods or generations of an organism in a year. The term is most often applied to insects, and is particularly in use in sericulture, where silkworm varieties vary in their voltinism.
...
.
During mating sessions, the wings of the male cover most of the female's abdomen, and this can sometimes lead to the loss of wing scales in the female, which can have negative effects on its flight efficiency.
Their mating sessions are notably long-lasting, taking more than 24 hours. They stay mostly immobile during the whole process but will move from spot to spot to
thermoregulate, walking into shadowy areas if it is too hot or into sunlight if it is too cold. The male is the one that effectuates the locomotion, while the female folds her legs to make it easier to carry.
The
caterpillar is of the "
woolly bear" kind, with a thick coat of black bristles (
setae
In biology, setae (singular seta ; from the Latin word for "bristle") are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms.
Animal setae
Protostomes
Annelid setae are stiff bristles present on the body. Th ...
) and red or orange bands between its segments, which become conspicuous when the caterpillar rolls into a ball for defense. Like the
banded woolly bear, its hairs are not
urticant
Nettle agents (named after stinging nettles) or urticants are a variety of chemical warfare agents that produce corrosive skin and tissue injury upon contact, resulting in erythema, urticaria, intense itching, and a hive-like rash.
Most nettle ...
nor venomous and do not typically cause irritation. The moth
overwinters
Overwintering is the process by which some organisms pass through or wait out the winter season, or pass through that period of the year when "winter" conditions (cold or sub-zero temperatures, ice, snow, limited food supplies) make normal acti ...
as a caterpillar,
often under the bark of decaying wood.
The caterpillar grows to be long.
Recorded food plants
The caterpillar eats a variety of broadleaf plants such as
broadleaf plantains,
dandelion
''Taraxacum'' () is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, which consists of species commonly known as dandelions. The scientific and hobby study of the genus is known as taraxacology. The genus is native to Eurasia and Nor ...
s and
violets:
Gallery
File:Giant leopard moth caterpillar.jpg, Larval stage
File:Hypercompe scribonia.jpg, Caterpillar in typical defensive ball
File:Hypercompe scribonia - Caterpillar - Devonian Fossil Gorge - Iowa City - 2014-10-15 - image 1.jpg, Caterpillar with typical red stripes
File:Hypercompe scribonia - Caterpillar - Devonian Fossil Gorge - Iowa City - 2014-10-15 - image 3.jpg, head of a caterpillar
File:GiantLeopardMoth.jpg, Closeup of head and thorax
File:LeopardMothBlueSpots edit2.jpg, Closeup showing iridescent blue spots
File:GiantLeopardMothHatched.jpg, Closeup of newly eclosed moth
File:GiantLeopardMothHatched2.jpg, Showing the old skin, empty pupal shell, and adult moth
Image:GiantLeopardMothHatched3.jpg, Last image at night before it flew off once wings dried
File:Giant_Leopard_Moth%2C_5-23-2012%2C_IN_-03.jpg, Wings spread, displaying abdomen colors
File:Giant_Leopard_Moth%2C_5-23-2012%2C_IN_-04.jpg, Close-up while wings upswept
File:Giant_Leopard_Moth%2C_5-23-2012%2C_IN_-05.jpg, The moment before take-off
File:Scale-less moth.jpg, A female giant leopard moth after mating
File:Female Giant Leopard Moth taking off.jpg, A female taking off
References
External links
Hilton Pond CenterSpecies ''Hypercompe scribonia'' – giant leopard moth - Hodges#8146 BugGuide
{{Authority control
Moths of North America
Hypercompe
Moths described in 1790