Ruby tiger
The ruby tiger is a small furry moth with reddish brown front wings. When it opens them, it shows bright rosy red back wings with black spots, like a hidden ruby. Its fuzzy caterpillar is covered in fox-red hairs.
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Fun facts
On warm winter days its hairy caterpillars sometimes come out of hiding and scurry fast across paths and roads.
In the south of England it has two families a year, but in the north only one.
Some ruby tigers have yellow back wings instead of red ones.
It likes rough places like roadsides, railway banks and weedy fields.
Its eggs are reddish grey and its pupa is black with yellow rings.
Most asked questions about Ruby tiger
?What does the ruby tiger caterpillar eat?
Lots of different low plants, like dandelions, docks, clover, brambles and heather.
?When can you see ruby tiger moths?
From about May to August, depending on where you live.
?How big is the ruby tiger?
Its wings are about 3.5 to 4.5 centimetres across.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Phragmatobia fuliginosa
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Erebidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Erebidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia, North America
Where the facts come from
- Phragmatobia fuliginosa (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 Martiño Cabana Otero. CC BY 4.0, 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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