Apantesis virgo

Apantesis virgo, the virgin tiger moth, is a moth of the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.^[1][2] It is found in North America from Newfoundland south to Florida west to Alberta.

Apantesis virgo
Male Virgin Tiger Moth
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Superfamily:	Noctuoidea
Family:	Erebidae
Subfamily:	Arctiinae
Genus:	Apantesis
Species:	A. virgo
Binomial name
Apantesis virgo (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
Grammia virgo (Linnaeus, 1758) Bombyx virgo Linnaeus, 1758 Euprepia virgo var. citrinaria Neumoegen & Dyar, 1893 Grammia virgo f. simplex Stretch, 1906

The wingspan is about 56 mm.^[3]

The larvae feed on various low-growing plants, including Thermopsis rhombifolia and Plantago species.^[4] The species overwinters in the larval stage.^[5]

This species was formerly a member of the genus Grammia, but was moved to Apantesis along with the other species of the genera Grammia, Holarctia, and Notarctia.^[6][7]

Subspecies

• Apantesis virgo virgo (from the Great Lakes region and Atlantic seaboard south through New England, to at least West Virginia. In the west, the range extends to north-eastern British Columbia)
• Apantesis virgo gigas B. C. Schmidt, 2009 (south-eastern United States, including the Great Smoky Mountains, south to Georgia and northern Florida)^[8]