| Milkweed tiger moth | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Superfamily: | Noctuoidea |
| Family: | Erebidae |
| Subfamily: | Arctiinae |
| Genus: | Euchaetes |
| Species: | E. egle
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| Binomial name | |
| Euchaetes egle (Drury, 1773)
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| Synonyms | |
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Euchaetes egle, the milkweed tiger moth or milkweed tussock moth, is a moth in the family Erebidae and the tribe Arctiini, the tiger moths. The species was first described by Dru Drury in 1773. It is a common mid- through late summer feeder on milkweeds and dogbane. Like most species in this family, it has chemical defenses it acquires from its host plants, in this case, cardiac glycosides.[1] These are retained in adults and deter bats, and presumably other predators, from feeding on them.[2] Only very high cardiac glycoside concentrations deterred bats as predators.[2] Adults indicate their unpalatability to bats with ultrasonic clicks from their tymbal organs.[3]
- ^ Weller, S. J., Jacobsen, N. L. & Conner, W. E. (1999). "The evolution of chemical defenses and mating systems in tiger moths (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae)". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 68 :557–578.
- ^ a b Hristov, N. L. & Conner, W. E. (2005). "Effectiveness of tiger moth (Lepidoptera, Arctiidae) chemical defenses against an insectivorous bat (Eptesicus fuscus)". Chemoecology. 15 (2): 105–113.
- ^ Nickolay; Hristov; Connor, William E (2021). "Sound strategy: acoustic aposematism in the bat-tiger moth arms race". Naturwissenschaften. 2005 (Apr): 164–169. doi:10.1007/s00114-005-0611-7.