Red Moth by Seattle
Hi there,
I found your website and I have enjoyed learning from it. I wondered if you knew what type of moth this is, it has been hanging around our place just north of Seattle the last few days. It is quite colorful, I am having trouble finding an exact match online. Even a short email leading me in the right direction would be very helpful sometime, it sounds like you get tons of email so thanks if you do get to this one. I’ve never seen a moth like this by our house before, it was really striking. Perhaps I just never noticed them, but who knows.
Mark
Hi Mark,
We don’t immediately recognize your moth, and a brief search of possibilities has not provided an answer. We have put in a request to Arctiid expert Julian Donahue and are eagerly awaiting his response. We had hoped to get that response to avoid updating this entry. Interestingly, the pattern and coloration resembles the Royal Walnut Moth, but we are confident that your moth and the Royal Walnut Moth are not closely related. We believe your moth is a Tiger Moth, an Arctiid, but are uncertain of the species. How large was this moth????
Hello, thanks for writing back to me so quickly. It wasn’t very large actually, about the size of a quarter. It didn’t mind me getting my digital camera up very close for a few pictures, and hung around for about 2 days, but I think it has departed. I’ve never seen a moth with those sorts of colors around our area, most of the ones attracted to our porch lights are varying shades of white, brown, grey, etc. It stood out immediately.
Identification: courtesy of Julian Donahue
This is the tiger moth Lophocampa roseata. According to the distribution map at http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=3774 it only occurs in the Seattle area. I haven’t checked the LACM collection to see if we have additional records.
Julian
Wow Julian,
Thank you so much. We feel so lucky to have been provided with an image of a Tiger Moth with such a limited range.
Could this be a Hickory Horned Devil?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citheronia_regalis
No it is not. Our original response did mention the resemblance to the Royal Walnut Moth, the adult Hickory Horned Devil. The moth was correctly identified as a Tiger Moth, Lophocampa roseata.
Could this be a Hickory Horned Devil?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citheronia_regalis
I think I found this type of moth today http://fav.me/d7p4w1q
I wouldn’t say the lophocampus roseata is exclusive to Seattle. I live on Whidbey Island north of Seattle and I have these in my woods.