The Tiger Moth

Heya fellas! It's me again back for another blog post! Forgive my potentially poorly written blog post, I felt like doing one but I chose a rotten time to do it. I seem to have picked up a bit of the flu. But no matter! I can still write! At least until the meds kick in and knock me out.

Right! Today I'm going to write on the Tiger moth! Quite a pretty little thing if you ask me. I just remembered that the only other blog post that I did on a moth was my very very first blog post on the hawk moth, and it reminds me. I've never actually explained the difference between a moth and a butterfly! People often see brightly coloured moths and confuse them with butterflies and dull butterflies and confuse them with moths. Well fear not! I am here to settle the issue once and for all! Right, firstly there are some very distinct differences between a moth and a butterfly, most people can easily tell the differences but when asked to list them out, one might have lots of trouble because they are blatantly obvious, yet subtle differences.

Right, the first difference which people might take note of is that moths cannot actually close their wings...ever seen a moth with closed wings? By closed wings I mean like that of a butterfly, the wings in a vertical position and the tops of the wings completely covered by each other. Moths are able to get their wings in a closed or near closed position but only briefly when flapping them while flying. This is mainly due to the thick round bodies most moths have and the fact that their wings join on the tops of the thorax instead of the lower sides. Another pretty obvious yet overlooked fact is that moths are nocturnal and butterflies are diurnal and as a result there is a slight difference in the eyes of the two. Moths are obviously better suited for night vision. But here's something you probably didn't know. You might be wondering why moths are nocturnal or crepuscular (Active during twilight hurr hurr hurr) Yet are attracted to light...now what I am about to say may blow your mind as it did mine when I heard it. Moths's eyes are adapted to navigation by moonlight...yep, moths use the relative position of the moon to tell their position as the moon is a somewhat fixed light source in the sky during the night, save on overcast evenings. Diurnal creatures actually use the sun in that same way! Now the reason moths appear to be "Attracted to light" is because they rely on a fixed light source to navigate, and when they fly past, say, a light bulb they mistakenly think the light bulb is the moon and because as they fly the position of the light source changes, their navigation gets messed up and they simply make an arc and circle around the light bulb. So in actual fact: Moths are not attracted to light, what you are seeing when a moth flies around a light is a confused as hell moth that is flying in circles thinking it is going straight, and most probably thinking it is travelling at light speed seeing as the moon as it sees it is changing position so quickly. Another small difference you might notice, most moths are very furry. Sometimes to a ridiculously cute extreme (We're talking Flufflepuff ridiculous here) One last major difference that is worth pointing out is that moth larvae from cocoons that they spin from silk, where as butterfly larvae form a chrysalis, which is sort of a tough shell. (Good lord so many ponies popping up into this blog post)

Regardless of these small differences, as you might have guessed, butterflies and moths are both closely related to each other, both of them being part of the order Lepidoptera, they then split into 30 superfamilies (28 of which are all moths!!!) Naturally, because butterflies and moths are such a large order in the Arthropod phylum, they are the main pollinators in nature. Of course it is worth noting that there are always exceptions to the above facts I have mentioned. Nevertheless! I give you two species of moth that fall under the same name! The Snouted Tiger Moth and the Tiger Moth (Yep, they thought this through, there couldn't possibly be any room for confusion here) What are the differences you ask? Well actually they are very different in appearance. They are however part of the same family which is why it is acceptable to give them such similar names. They are both part of the family Arctiidae, however the Tiger Moth is part of a sub-family Arctiinae and the Snouted Tiger Moth is part of the sub-family Aganaidae. Small taxonomic differences really.

Right, here some pictures of the two starting with the Tiger Moth:



Aand now the Snouted Tiger Moth:





I'm sure you can notice the difference between the two! You might notice a distinct lack of stripes on the Snouted Tiger Moth specimen. That's because this specimen was rather beat up (they aren't common to find in very good shape out here you see.) The top layer of scales obviously rubbed off with age. Here is what a young Snouted Tiger Moth (Psephea speciosa) looks like:



And that be it! If you have any questions or requests just pop em in the comments! But otherwise, I'll be off then! I hope you enjoyed this blog post! Wow! I actually managed to make it all the way to the end of this po-*clunk*