Arge Tiger (8199)

Grammia arge

Family Erebidae, subfamily Arctiinae

Photograph copyright by Tony Leukering

22 June 2012

West Cape May

CMMP block X02

Distribution map

The tiger moths are another of my favorite groups, again because of the family's relatively conservative shape that makes most species immediately identifiable to the group. Additionally, many tigers have distinctive, pleasing, and/or interesting forewing patterns. Many species have hairy, furry, or wooly caterpillars that get them distinctive names of their own. Tigers have a strong following among moth-ers, as exemplified by the fact that of the ridiculously low number of moth species recorded in the county before I and, particularly, Mike Crewe started working on them here (63), nearly one-sixth (10) are tigers, including Arge Tiger. As a brief aside, most of the rest of those 63 species are of two families: silk moths (Saturniidae, 14 species) and sphinx moths (Sphingidae 32 species)! In fact, only  one other family is represented, the Notodontidae (prominents).

Arge Tiger is one of the striped species that are particularly appreciated by moth-ers. Unlike most of them, however, Arge sports hindwings that are primarily pale, with some dark spotting; most have colorful hindwings, dominated by reds and yellows with contrasting bits of black. I would provide a link to a picture of the caterpillar of the species, but neither the MPG nor BAMONA pages have one as of the writing of this essay.

The individual subject of this essay was captured by Mike in his moth trap a few nights ago. I got to help go through the hundreds of moths (and hundreds of a large variety of other arthropod beasties) the next morning, when I took the above photo. Mike, who has spent a lot of time mothing in the U.K., particularly in Norfolk (for which see the incredible Norfolk moth site; here is a link to a species page), so knows oodles more than do I about moths. When he runs the trap, he endeavors to keep track of counts of every species. As he's relatively new to our moths, he keeps various ID references handy. Though I don't think that his tally is complete from that night, the last I heard, the species list was up to 75!  [28 July 2012 addendum:  The final tally from that night was 91 species!]

[A scene from the Crewe residence on the morning of 22 June 2012 with the new Beadle and Leckie field guide, a three-ring binder with -- apparently -- every plate from the MPG site printed, and the day's tally of common species from the trap. As with all photos on the site, click on the image to see a larger version.]