''Arctia villica'', the cream-spot tiger, 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'') ...

. The species was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in his 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. It is distributed from the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

across western and southern Europe,

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

, western and northern

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, western

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

, southwestern Asia and

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

.''Fauna Europaea''
/ref> This species, along with the others of the genus ''Epicallia'', was moved to ''

Arctia ''Arctia'' is a genus of tiger moths in the family Erebidae. Therein, it belongs to the subtribe Arctiina in the tribe Arctiini in the subfamily Arctiinae. Species are well distributed throughout North America, Palearctic, India, and Sri Lank ...

'' as a result of phylogenetic research published by Rönkä et al. in 2016.

Description

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 of ...

of these moths reaches 45–60 mm.Cream-Spot Tiger on ''UKMoths''
/ref> They have black or greyish forewings with white and cream broad patches and spots. The bright red/orange hind wings have black spots. The thorax is black and the abdomen is reddish-orange. The highly coloured parts are bright scarlet on a newly emerged insect and tend to dull to orange with age. The

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...

s are black with light brown tufts of hairs, while the head and the legs are reddish. They can reach a length of about 12–12 mm.

Behaviour

The moths are nocturnal and attracted by light, but the females fly also during the day. By day these moths can be found resting on leaves. Moths of this species fly from March to July depending on the location. The

s feed on a variety of herbaceous plants, mainly dandelion (''

Taraxacum ''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 ...

'' species), plantains (''

Plantago ''Plantago'' is a genus of about 200 species of flowering plants in the family Plantaginaceae, commonly called plantains or fleaworts. The common name plantain is shared with the unrelated cooking plantain. Most are herbaceous plants, though a ...

'' species), deadnettles (''

Lamium ''Lamium'' (dead-nettles) is a genus of about 30 species of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae, of which it is the type genus. They are all herbaceous plants native to Europe, Asia, and northern Africa, but several have become very successf ...

'' species), yarrow (''

Achillea ''Achillea'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, known colloquially as yarrows. The plants typically have frilly leaves. The common name "yarrow" usually refers to '' A. millefolium''. The genus was named after the Gre ...

'' species), blackberries (''

Rubus ''Rubus'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae, with over 1,350 species. Raspberries, blackberries, and dewberries are common, widely distributed members of the genus. Most of these ...

'' species), nettles (''

Urtica ''Urtica'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Urticaceae. Many species have stinging hairs and may be called nettles or stinging nettles, although the latter name applies particularly to ''Urtica dioica''. ''Urtica'' species are food f ...

'' species), knapweeds (''

Centaurea ''Centaurea'' () is a genus of over 700 species of herbaceous thistle-like flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Members of the genus are found only north of the equator, mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere; the Middle East and surrounding reg ...

'' species) and strawberries (''

Fragaria ''Fragaria'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, commonly known as strawberries for their edible fruits. There are more than 20 described species and many hybrids and cultivars. The most common strawberries grown com ...

'' species). They overwinter, but they are relatively sensitive to frost. They can be seen in the spring after hibernation while feeding or seeking for suitable places to pupate. They pupate in May on the ground.

Habitat

This species inhabits woodland, areas with bushes and hedges and sunny open grassy areas.

Subspecies

*''Arctia villica confluens'' (Romanoff, 1884) *''Arctia villica villica'' (Linnaeus, 1758) *''Arctia villica angelica'' (Boisduval, 1829) *''Arctia villica fulminans'' (Staudinger, 1871) *''Arctia villica marchandi'' (de Freina, 1983)''BioLib.cz''
/ref>

Philately

The cream-spot tiger appeared in 1992 on the German stamp of 100+50 pfennigs.

Gallery

File:Arctiidae - Arctia villica.JPG, Imago File:Arctiidae - Arctia villica.jpg, Caterpillar File:Arctia villica MHNT.jpg, Museum specimen Image:Arctia villica ventre.jpg, Underside - museum specimen Image:DBP_1992_1605-R.JPG, On a German stamp

References

External links

* ttp://www.lepiforum.de/cgi-bin/lepiwiki.pl?Arctia_Villica ''Lepiforum e.V.''br>''De Vlinderstichting''
{{taxonbar, from=Q1314980 Arctiina Moths described in 1758 Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Moths of Africa Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus