Page 293 - The Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species From Around the World

MOTH CATERPILLARS

FAMILY Elachistidae
DISTRIBUTION Europe from Spain and southern United Kingdom to southern
Scandinavia and eastern Russia, Asia Minor, northern Iran,
and east Asia from Korea north to eastern Siberia
HABITAT Woodland rides and edges, and wooded fenland
HOST PLANTS Common Gromwell (Lithospermum o cinale)
NOTE Spotted caterpillar whose striking moth resembles “ermine”
moths (Yponomeuta spp.)
CONSERVATION STATUS Not evaluated

ADULT WINGSPAN
⁄ –¾ in (18–21 mm)
CATERPILLAR LENGTH
⁄ in (18 mm)
ETHMIA DODECEA
DOTTED ERMEL 291

(HAWORTH, 1828)

The Dotted Ermel caterpillar lives singly or in groups under the
leaves of its host plant, sheltering beneath a slight silken web.
The eggs are undescribed but are probably laid on the leaves in
small groups or singly, during the late spring and summer, and
hatch within one or two weeks. There is a single brood each
year, and the caterpillar can be found in August and September. Actual size
It leaves the food plant to pupate in a cocoon among plant litter
on the ground and overwinters as a pupa.

The black-spotted, grayish-white adults fly from May to
August. The species is one of many fairly small moths in the
subfamily Ethmiinae that produce brightly colored caterpillars The Dotted Ermel caterpillar is slender, with
that specialize in feeding on plants in the family Boraginaceae. long, scattered, white bristles. It is pale yellow
but largely white along the back with a ne,
Ethmiinae comprises about 300 species, found in most parts black, broken central line and alternating large
of the world. and small, black blotches. It also has small,
black spots and blotches on the lower sides.
The black head has a short, white frontal band.