''Lophocampa maculata'', the Yellow-spotted tussock moth, mottled tiger or spotted halisidota, 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 ...

of the family Erebidae and the tribe

Arctiini __NOTOC__ The Arctiini are a tribe of tiger moths in the family Erebidae. Systematics The tribe was previously treated as a higher-level taxon, the subfamily Arctiinae, within the lichen and tiger moth family, Arctiidae. The ranks of the fam ...

, the tiger moths. The species was first described by

Thaddeus William Harris Thaddeus William Harris (November 12, 1795 – January 16, 1856) was an American entomologist and librarian. His focus on insect life cycles and interactions with plants was influential in broadening American entomological studies beyond a narrow ...

in 1841. It is found across

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

, the western parts of the United States, south in the Appalachians to

South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = "Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = G ...

and

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...

. The

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 ...

is 35–45 mm. The moth flies from May to July; the

larvae A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. T ...

remain from July to September. There is one generation per year. The larvae go through five

instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow o ...

s; the final instar is black at the ends, with a yellow or orange middle section, which in some populations has black spots. The larvae feed on the leaves of poplar and willow, but also feed on alder, basswood, birch, maple and oak. It is a tiger moth but is commonly referred to as a "tussock moth" for the tufts of hair on the caterpillar. According to

Wiktionary Wiktionary ( , , rhyming with "dictionary") is a multilingual, web-based project to create a free content dictionary of terms (including words, phrases, proverbs, linguistic reconstructions, etc.) in all natural languages and in a number ...

, a tussock is a tuft or clump of green grass or similar verdure, forming a small hillock.

Subspecies

*''Lophocampa maculata maculata'' *''Lophocampa maculata agassizii'' (Packard, 1864) (California, British Columbia) *''Lophocampa maculata texana'' (Rothschild, 1909) (Texas)

References

External links

* * maculata Moths of North America Moths described in 1841 {{Lophocampa-stub