#salt marsh moth

[onenicebugperday]

@wastedpotentialsblog submitted: It's fall in Texas, so I've been taking handfuls of Salt Marsh Caterpillars home and out of roads and sidewalks. I got this pretty white/gray one! I didn't even know they came in this color. I've been thinking of naming em "Earl Gray"

A very cute and fuzzy child! And yes, salt marsh moth caterpillars come in a petty wide range of colors. They are all beautiful and perfect :) Please tell Earl Gray I love them

[libraryofmoths]

Moth of the Week

Salt Marsh Moth

Estigmene acrea

The salt marsh moth is a part of the family Erebidae. This species was first described in 1773 by Dru Drury. It is also known as the acrea moth.

Description Both male and female moths have white heads, thoraxes, and forewings with a varying pattern of black spots on the forewings, with some moths having no pattern at all. They also share an orange-yellow abdomen with a vertical line of back dots. On the male, the hindwings are the same organge yellow while on females the hindwings are white. Both males and females have three or four black dots on each hindwing.

Wingspan Range: 4.5 - 6.8 cm (≈1.77 - 2.68 in)

Diet and Habitat The caterpillar was first thought to be a pest to salt-grass, but in fact it prefers weeds, vegetables, and field crops such as dandelions, cabbage, cotton, walnuts, apple, tobacco, pea, potato, clovers, and maize. Adults do not feed.

This moth is found in North America, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Colombia, and Mexico. It prefers open habitats such as openings in woods, thickets, farm fields, grasslands, and marshes. It is called the “salt marsh moth” because it is common in coastal salt marshes (tidal marshes) along Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf coasts.

Mating This species of moth does not emit pheromones from the tip of its abdomen but instead from its throat or the to of its abdomen. These moths are seen from May to August but can be seen all year in southern Florida and Texas. It is presumably during May and August they mate in most parts of their range while they mate all year round in Florida and Texas.

Yellowish eggs are laid in clusters on the host plant leaves. Females usually produce 400 to 1000 eggs in one or more clusters. It is possible to find a single egg cluster containing 1200 eggs. Eggs hatch in four to five days.

Predators This species is frequently parasitized as larvae, usually by flies in the Tachinidae family. In Arizona, the most common parasites were Exorista mellea and Leschenaultia adusta while two other parasitic flies were also seen: Gymnocarcelia ricinorum and Lespesia archippivora.

Both the larval and egg stages are oararzitized by Hymenopteran parasitoids such as Apanteles diacrisiae; Therion fuscipenne, T. morio, Casinaria genuina, Hyposoter rivalis; Psychophagus omnivorus, Tritneptis hemerocampae Vierick; Anastatus reduvii; and Trichogramma semifumatum.

A cytoplasmic polyhedrosis virus is known to harm this species but there are little data on its importance and effect.

General predators such as lady beetles, softwinged flower beetles, and assassin bugs prey on these caterpillars, but are not thought to have a large impact on population.

Fun Fact This species has 4 subspecies: Estigmene acrea acrea, Estigmene acrea arizonensis (Rothschild, (1910)) (Arizona), Estigmene acrea mexicana (Walker, (1865)) (Mexico), Estigmene acrea columbiana (Rothschild, (1910)) (Colombia).

(Source: Wikipedia, University of Florida, Missouri Department of Conservation)

[moths-daily]

if u haven’t done them yet, could u do the salt marsh moth :0

Moth Of The Day #122

Salt Marsh Moth / Acrea Moth

Estigmene acrea

From the erebidae family. They have a wingspan of 45-68 mm. They tend to inhabit forests, thickets, farm fields, grasslands, and marshes. They can be found in North America, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Colombia and Mexico.

[memoriesofthepark]

Salt marsh moth 》 Estigmene acrea

I thought for sure I had posted the moth pics here before, but I can't find the post.

Either way, salt marsh moths are so cute! Their caterpillars.... maybe not quite as cute. 😅

I've always had an aversion to hairy caterpillars but I'm trying to work on that. His little face munching on a clover is very cute, but something about his hair makes me recoil.

Southeast Texas, 5 Mar. 2024 (moth), 12 April 2024 (caterpillar)

[grapefruit185]

fursona sketches (1/??????)

[dinoserious]

day 23 salt marsh moth tile

[strickenspirit]

Bardicspirit artwork 🖤💛🤍

[magnesiumxp]

hey guys thsi is me

[kumagoro4ever]

Found a salt marsh moth. She's so pretty.

[olliethescribe]

Ask inspired by your moth poem: do you have any favorite moths? I really like salt marsh moths and white-lined sphinx moths (and I really want to see a ceanothus silk moth some day.)

(salt marsh moth on my front door from a few years ago)

Such a handsome little fellow you’ve found :] - I adore moths, they’re such sweet creatures. When I lived upstate I would run into these clunky moths every spring, hummingbird hawk moths, that I fell in love with. They’re my favorite moths alongside the rosy maple moth.

(These are hummingbird hawk moths. Images provided by Google.)

[ms-scarletwings]

World like this needs more butterfly/moth photos in it. Here’s a few of mine.

Salt marsh moth, Estigmene acrea

Sachem Skipper, Atalopedes campestris

Pearl Crescent, Phyciodes tharos

Eastern Tailed-Blue female, Cupido comyntas

Bent-Line Dart, Choephora fungorum

[onenicebugperday]

@musclekittysenpai submitted: Big fuzzy!!!

Found in Marina, California

Extremely nice tiger moth baby! Idk which one as there are a bunch that look similar. Maybe a salt marsh moth.

[topios]

A salt marsh moth on orange peel mushrooms- the colors just suited each other really well I think.

[bytesizeambs]

Salt Marsh Moth Caterpillar | Cute Caterpillar #shorts #bytesizeambs #caterpillar #cutecritters

This cute and wiggly little guy was hard to find the species of. I believe it to be a Salt Marsh Moth Caterpillar. However, there are a few similar.... Nevada Tiger Moth Caterpillar and Garden Tiger Moth Caterpillar. It does have some characteristics of a Tiger Moth Caterpillar but it's also missing some ID markers as well. Hopefully it is named correctly here, as the Salt Marsh Moth Caterpillar.

[almightynewt]

So my salt marsh moth pupated and now he’s a beautiful boy!! I put some kale in there for him and I ordered a pinning kit for when he dies (they only live a few days). But I’m so proud and happy for my fuzzy boy!!

[capecodadventurepictures]

Caterpillar in Falmouth 09/28/23