Great Tiger Moth

The Great Tiger Moth, more widely known as the Garden Tiger Moth, is a member of the tiger moth subfamily Arctiinae within the broader family Erebidae. It is renowned for its dramatic two-tone wing pattern, combining an intricate cream-and-brown maze-like forewing with brilliant orange-red hindwings dotted with dark blue-black spots.

The species is notable as one of the most recognizable and photographed moths in its range, both for its striking coloration and for its equally distinctive, densely hairy caterpillar known colloquially as the "woolly bear." It has long served as an introductory species for people learning about moths due to its size and unmistakable pattern.

Ecologically it is a generalist feeder found across a wide range of open and semi-open habitats, and it has been the subject of long-term population monitoring in parts of its range due to noted regional declines, making it of interest in discussions of moth conservation and biodiversity trends.

• Forewings display an intricate cream and dark chocolate-brown pattern resembling a maze or lace design, no two individuals identical.
• Hindwings are bright orange to red-orange with bold blue-black spots and blotches, normally hidden beneath the forewings at rest.
• Body is stout and covered in dense hair-like scales, colored to match the forewing pattern.
• Antennae are feathery (bipectinate) in males, more thread-like in females.
• The caterpillar is very hairy, covered in long ginger-brown and black bristles, giving it the "woolly bear" nickname.
• Lookalikes include other tiger moths, but the specific maze-like forewing pattern combined with spotted orange hindwings is distinctive to this species.

Found across much of Europe, temperate Asia, and North America, inhabiting gardens, meadows, hedgerows, moorland edges, and waste ground with abundant low vegetation. Adults fly mainly at night during summer, typically from June to August, and are occasionally seen at rest in daylight on foliage or fences, while caterpillars are conspicuous crossing open ground, particularly paths and lawns, in spring.

Adults are primarily nocturnal, flying at night and coming readily to lights, while by day they may be found resting on vegetation, occasionally flashing the bright hindwings if disturbed as a startle display to deter predators. The caterpillars are active by day as well as night, often seen wandering in the open, and feed on a very wide range of low-growing herbaceous plants and shrubs, making them highly generalist feeders. Both the vivid adult coloration and the bristly larval covering are thought to function as warning signals to potential predators, a common strategy among tiger moths.

Females lay clusters of eggs on host-plant foliage in summer. The hairy caterpillars feed through late summer and often overwinter while still partially grown, resuming feeding and growth the following spring before pupating in a loose silken cocoon spun among leaf litter or low vegetation. There is typically a single generation per year, with adults emerging in early to midsummer after overwintering as a larva.