Scarlet Tiger

Fascinating facts about the Scarlet Tiger

• Preferring damp places like wet meadows, river banks, fens and marshes, the moth also shows up on rocky sea cliffs, showing a surprising habitat flexibility. Moist environments supply the nectar-feeding adults and the lush host plants their larvae need, while the occasional cliff sightings.
• At Oxfordshire's Cothill reserve, three colour morphs of the scarlet tiger moth have been dissected by genetic pioneers like E. B. Ford, Ronald Fisher and Denis Owen, turning a local population into a classic laboratory for evolution. Their work showed how a single gene can produce striking pattern variation that persists under natural selection. This long-standing study demonstrates the species as a living textbook for how genetics and environment interact in the wild.
• First recorded in 1758, the scarlet tiger moth entered science when Carl Linnaeus listed it in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae.
• With a wingspan of 45-55 mm (1.8-2.2 in), the adult scarlet tiger moth, while its caterpillars grow to about 40 mm (1.6 in) long.
• The scarlet tiger moth inhabits most of Europe and stretches into the Near East, covering Turkey, the South Caucasus and northern Iran.

Sources

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

• Wikipedia

At a glance

About the Scarlet Tiger

In the sun-dappled forests, the Scarlet Tiger moth unfurls its vibrant wings, a kaleidoscope of crimson and black that dances across the woodland floor. With delicate precision, it flits from flower to flower, its proboscis uncoiling like a slender thread to sip nectar from the sweetest blooms, its very existence a whispered promise of summer's warmth. As it moves, the light catches its wings, casting a fleeting glow that is at once ethereal and unforgettable, a glimpse of a secret world that lies just beyond our own.

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