Jersey Tiger

Fascinating facts about the Jersey Tiger

• At just over two inches across, the Jersey tiger's wings stretch 52-65 mm, yet it darts about from July through September, timing its summer flights to the warmest months. First recorded by Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus in 1761, this modest-sized moth has been known to science for over 260 years. Its compact size and brief adult window mean every sighting captures a fleeting moment in the seasonal tapestry of European insects.
• Jersey tiger caterpillars are culinary generalists, munching on nettles, raspberries, dandelion, white deadnettle, ground-ivy, groundsel, plantain, borage, lettuce and hemp-agrimony from September to May. After a long feeding season they pause growth, overwintering as tiny larvae until spring's warmth returns.
• In the north-west of its range the Jersey tiger breaks the rule that warning colours stay the same, showing red, orange or yellow hindwings. Two genes control this palette: one decides red versus orange, the other forces yellow when its recessive form is homozygous. The yellow-gene (Y) must be present for any colour, and it may convert yellow pigment to orange, which the red-gene (R) then deepens to red. This genetic switch shows how even defensive signals can evolve flexibility.
• Spanning from Estonia to Iran, the Jersey tiger's range stretches across Europe, western Russia, the southern Urals, Asia Minor and the Near East. Yet individuals don't stay put; they are known to migrate northwards from their regular breeding grounds during the summer, expanding their reach into cooler latitudes.
• Once a Victorian rarity, the Jersey tiger surged from a handful of sites in Devon to being common across southern England by 2019, and recorded a 78 % jump in sightings between 2024 and 2025. Its rise matters because the moth is the only lepidopteran listed as a 'priority species' under Annex II of the EU Habitats Directive since 1992, granting its habitats special protection.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

At a glance

About the Jersey Tiger

In the warm, sun-drenched meadows of Europe, the Jersey Tiger moth dances through the air with an effortless elegance, its vibrant orange wings beating rapidly as it navigates a world of wildflowers and verdant grasses. With its striking black stripes and bold, white spots, this moth is a masterpiece of evolutionary design, its very appearance a testament to the intricate beauty of the natural world. As it flutters from bloom to bloom, the Jersey Tiger leaves a trail of wonder in its wake, a fleeting glimpse of a life lived in perfect harmony with the land.

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