Isabella tiger moth
The Isabella tiger moth is a yellowish-orange moth with a few black spots. Its caterpillar is much more famous. It is the woolly bear, a fuzzy caterpillar that is black at both ends and reddish-brown in the middle.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
The woolly bear spends the winter frozen solid. First its heart stops, then its tummy and blood freeze, and in spring it thaws out and carries on.
It makes a special antifreeze in its body that keeps it from being hurt by the ice.
Its brown middle band gets wider every time it sheds its skin as it grows.
In some towns in the United States there are woolly bear festivals with caterpillar races.
The grown-up moth has bright reddish-orange front legs.
Most asked questions about Isabella tiger moth
?Can a woolly bear caterpillar predict the winter?
No. The width of its brown band depends on its age, not on the weather to come.
?Is the woolly bear caterpillar poisonous?
No. Its hairs have no venom, but they can make some people itchy, so it is better not to handle it.
?What does the woolly bear turn into?
It turns into the Isabella tiger moth, a yellowish-orange moth with small black spots.
Myth buster
Myth: The brown band on a woolly bear tells you how cold the winter will be.
Truth: No. The width of the brown band depends on how old the caterpillar is. Even caterpillars from the same mother can look very different.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Pyrrharctia isabella
- Named by
- Smith, 1797
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Erebidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Erebidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Banded woolly bear, Woolly bear, Woolly worm
Where the facts come from
- Pyrrharctia isabella (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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