Giant Leopard Moth

Giant Leopard Moth

One advantage of being in Master Naturalists is that friends bring you lots of interesting bugs and plants to identify, a game called "Stump the Chump".  I sometimes have to remind them that "Master Naturalist" is an organization, not a degree.

Larry Whiteley brought this Bass Pro special today.  Fortunately he he had found a uniquely colored moth with an interesting story.  The Giant Leopard Moth, Hypercompe scribonia, is very distinctive with dramatic dark ovals and circles on its dorsal forewings resembling a leopard's spots.  This specimen was long dead so I livened it up on a floral arrangement.

Caterpillar Defensive Position- Wikimedia

Also known as the Eyed Tiger Moth, it is a member of the Arctiidae family which includes Tiger, Tussock and Lichen moths.  Its beautiful hairy caterpillar is related to the Woolly Bear caterpillar, touted as a forecaster of winter weather.  The Tiger Moths get their name from the bold bands of various colors on their dorsal wings.

Tiger Moths have a unique defense against bats, a formidable predator during their nocturnal flights.  They have long been known to produce ultrasonic sounds but now we know a reason why.  A Discover Magazine blog describes sounds the moths emit as interfering with the echolocation system of bats.  We can think of it like a fighter plane jamming a missile's radar signal.  This tactic greatly reduces the bat's successful rate of moth captures.

New studies of bat echolocation from Brown University add to the wonder.  They describe how a bat can isolate the echos of a small insect amidst all the echos from the environment (tree branches, leaves, wires, etc) and those of other bats. Since the attack sequence of a bat lasts less than a second, the moths have to react fast.  Fortunately, the moths can produce up to 450 clicks in one-tenth of a second.