Page 290 - The Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species From Around the World

MOTH CATERPILLARS

FAMILY Yponomeutidae
DISTRIBUTION
DISTRIBUTION
DIS TRIBUTION Europe, Siberia, India, and eastern Asia to Japan
HABIT
HABITAT
HABITAT T Woodlands, hedgerows, parks, and gardens
A
HOS
T PLANT
HOST PLANTS S Bird Cherry (Prunus padus)
HOST PLANTS
NO
NOTE Small, gregarious caterpillar that can defoliate whole trees
NOTE
TE
TUS
CONSERV
A
A
CONSERVATION STATUS
CONSERVATION STATUS Not evaluated, but widespread and common
T
TION S
ADULT WINGSPAN
⅝–1 in (16–25 mm)
CATERPILLAR LENGTH
¾ in (19 mm)
YPONOMEUTA EVONYMELLUS
BIRD-CHERRY ERMINE MOTH
288
(LINNAEUS, 1758)
Bird-cherry Ermine Moth caterpillars hatch from eggs laid
on the host plant and develop slowly, overwintering there and
becoming active again the following spring, when they spin
huge, communal, silken webs over branches of the host tree,
giving it a frost-like covering. The gregarious caterpillars feed
on the leaves beneath it, the web giving them protection from
Actual size
predators. They also pupate in the trees, spinning white, opaque
cocoons that are suspended within the web.

The small, day-flying adults emerge and fly in late summer.
While the caterpillars can reach pest proportions, defoliating
many trees, in the past their silken webs were put to a unique
artistic use. In the sixteenth century, in the Austrian Tyrol,
The Bird-cherry Ermine Moth caterpillar monks made canvases from spiders’ webs and the silken webs
has a yellow-brown body. There are two rows of ermine moth caterpillars, and produced miniature so-called
of brown-black spots running from the head
to the end of the abdomen. The head and “cobweb paintings.” One example, depicting the Virgin and
legs are brown.
Child and made from the web of Yponomeuta evonymellus, can
be seen in Chester Cathedral, England.