Subject: Moth
Location: Santa Rosa, New Mexico, USA
July 31, 2014 9:22 pm
Hello. I was wondering just what sort of moth this is. It’s very unusual for the usual kinds of moths we get here and i thought it was really interesting, and strong when I went to pry it off the table! But it’s safely sitting on the porch out of the rain now. Please get back to me.
Signature: Jared Serrano
Hi Jared,
After a bit of searching, we were able to identify this as a Clio Tiger Moth, Ectypia clio, thanks to images posted to BugGuide. According to BugGuide: “Larvae feed on milkweed (Asclepias, Asclepiadaceae) and dogbane (Apocynum, Apocynaceae). Behr reported them on spreading dogbane (Apocynum androsaemifolium).” We recall a recent posting with unknown caterpillars that resembled Tiger Moth Caterpillars feeding on milkweed, and now we are going to try to locate the posting to see if the caterpillars resemble the caterpillars of the Clio Tiger Moth posted to BugGuide.