Page 292 - The Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species From Around the World

MOTH CATERPILLARS

FAMILY Elachistidae
DISTRIBUTION Most of Europe, east to the Urals and Iran, northeastern
United States, and eastern Canada (introduced in the 1960s
and slowly spreading)
HABITAT Open, disturbed, calcareous or sandy places
HOST PLANTS Viper’s Bugloss (Echium vulgare) and other Echium spp., including
E. tuberculatum; also Hound’s Tongue (Cynoglossum o cinale),
alkanet (Anchusa spp.), and gromwell (Lithospermum spp.)
NOTE Caterpillar that wriggles vigorously when disturbed—behavior
typical of microlarvae
CONSERVATION STATUS Not evaluated, but widespread in suitable habitat throughout
most of its range

ADULT WINGSPAN
¾–1⅛ in (20–28 mm)
CATERPILLAR LENGTH
¾ in (20 mm)
ETHMIA BIPUNCTELLA
VIPER’S BUGLOSS MOTH
290
(FABRICIUS, 1775)

The Viper’s Bugloss Moth caterpillar lives among the owers
or leaves of its food plant, sheltering under a slight web. When
disturbed, like many “micromoth” larvae, it wriggles vigorously
backward. The eggs are laid singly on the underside of leaves,
hatching after about ten days. There are two broods annually,
and the caterpillar can be found in June and July, then again in
Actual size
September. It leaves the food plant to pupate in a cocoon among
leaf litter on the ground and passes the winter as a pupa.

The black-and-white patterned adults fly in the spring and
again in the late summer. The species is a member of the

The Viper’s Bugloss Moth caterpillar is whitish, small subfamily Ethmiinae (sometimes classi ed as the family
heavily marked with lines of black spots and Ethmiidae), comprising about 300 species of fairly small moths,
large, black blotches. It has a line of alternating
black and orange-yellow spots along the back found in most parts of the world. Many of the larvae are colorful,
and an irregular but more or less complete
orange-yellow stripe along the sides. The head and some are gregarious. A high proportion feed on plants
is black with a conspicuous white, triangular in the Boraginaceae family, often living in a silken web but in
mark in the center.
some cases openly.