Jersey Tiger

• It is a priority species in Annex II of the European Union Habitats Directive, a category reserved for a small number of species.
• In the Valley of the Butterflies on Rhodes, in Greece, hundreds of thousands gather every summer on the trunks of the sweetgum trees, drawn by the damp and the resin; noise from visitors that puts them to flight exhausts them and reduces their breeding success.
• The contrast between the cryptic forewings and the red hindwings is a startle defence: opening suddenly, the flash disconcerts the predator.
• It flies by day despite being a moth, which is unusual, and visits flowers like a butterfly.
• Its most striking behaviour is its summer aggregation. In the Valley of the Butterflies on Rhodes, in Greece, hundreds of thousands of individuals gather every summer on the trunks of the storax trees, drawn by their resin, and remain almost motionless while they wait out the heat.
• Those aggregations are a huge tourist attraction, and also a problem: noise and disturbance make the moths take flight, burning reserves they need for breeding.
• Like the garden tiger moth, it hides red hindwings with black spots beneath cryptic forewings striped in cream and black.
• It is a species of Community interest under the European Union's Habitats Directive, the only moth listed as a priority species.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat and environment

Damp ravines, forest edges and shaded watercourses of Europe

Sexual maturity

The female releases pheromones to attract males when the temperature rises above 15 °C

Gestation / incubation

The eggs hatch after about two weeks; the caterpillar feeds from September to May, overwinters while it is still small among the dead leaves and pupates in spring

Litter / clutch size

Clutches that often exceed 500 eggs

Sources consulted: Directiva Hábitats de la UE · Butterfly Conservation Europe · estudios sobre la agregación de Petaloudes, Rodas · Wellcome Open Research, genoma de Euplagia quadripunctaria · Directiva Habitats 92/43/CEE, anexo II · fichas de especie · ScienceDirect (Hughes 1989) · Science Advances, How colonial animals evolve · Wikipedia, Zooid · Wellcome Open Research, genoma de Euplagia quadripunctaria (Waring et al. 2017) · Ficha de especie de Euplagia quadripunctaria · UKmoths · Wellcome Open Research (Brakefield & Liebert 1985) · Monaco Nature Encyclopedia

Best time: Flies from July to September depending on the locality, along damp paths in broadleaf woodland, riverbanks and shaded ravines, often in large numbers on hemp-agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum)