Garden Tiger

• When disturbed it flicks open its forewings to show the red hindwings, a warning flash accompanied by the secretion of a toxic fluid from the back of the neck.
• Its populations have fallen by more than 90% in the United Kingdom since the 1980s, a decline documented by light-trap monitoring that has become one of the most cited examples of the collapse of European insects.
• Its caterpillar is polyphagous, feeding on nettles, dandelions, brambles and dozens of other plants, which makes its retreat all the more puzzling.
• It is a textbook example of double aposematism: the forewings, marbled in brown and cream, camouflage the moth at rest, but when disturbed it opens them and reveals red hindwings with black spots.
• And the warning is real: it accumulates toxic compounds from the plants it eats as a caterpillar, and it also secretes a yellow fluid from its thorax when attacked.
• It also emits ultrasonic clicks that interfere with the sonar of bats, a mechanism shared by several arctiid moths.
• The caterpillar, very hairy with long brown and black hairs, is popularly known as the woolly bear; its hairs cause skin irritation in some people.
• Its populations have fallen sharply in the United Kingdom and other northern European countries since the 1980s, and the decline is linked to milder, wetter winters.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat & environment

Meadows, gardens, verges and woodland edges of Europe and temperate Asia

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctia_caja