Subject: Beautiful Snow Prince
Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA
April 1, 2016 11:22 pm
Hello Bugman!
You answered an email I sent before about a moth, and so I thought I would ask again. I found this beauty while visiting my parents in the SF Bay Area. What kind of moth is he/she? It was such a beautiful creature. 🙂
Thanks for your help. You’re awesome!
Signature: Claire
Vestal Tiger Moth or Fall Webworm???
Dear Claire,
This lovely moth is a Vestal Tiger Moth, Spilosoma vestalis, and according to BugGuide: “Larvae feed on leaves of various flowering trees, particularly oak.” We believe this may be the first example of this species on our site.
That’s exciting! Thanks again, it made my day seeing the post on Facebook! ? Glad to contribute to moth documentation!
Claire
Update:Â April 16, 2018
Thanks to a comment by Karoline, we are now wondering if this might be a Fall Webworm moth.
I like ThisRelated posts:
We live on the coast just south of sf – we had a vestal tiger moth perched on our front porch this last weekend
Just photographed one in Placentia, California
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcECdWUjm5k/?taken-by=naturebypaul
Hi Paul, I came here to identify a moth that I saw today, which I believe is in fact a Vestal Tiger Moth. Looking at your beautiful photograph, I think that yours is a Salt Marsh moth based on the striped legs and the yellow chest, a bit of which I think I see in your photos. I originally thought I had a Salt Marsh moth, but soon realized it was a Vestal Tiger moth because of the lack of stripes on the legs. https://www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/10857 https://www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/10861 Did you get more shots of it? It is gorgeous.
Thanks for drawing our attention to this old posting. We are wondering if it might be a Fall Webworm.