Field Guide

Tent caterpillar moths and lappet moths are medium-sized, with thick, long scales that make them look furry. The abdomen usually extends past the wings when they are folded back over the body.

At rest, tortricid moths often have a distinctive shape, resembling an arrowhead or a bell, with the forewing tips either squared-off or flared outward.

The silken tents of eastern tent caterpillars are conspicuous each spring in the forks of apple, cherry, and plum trees. The adult moths are brown with two pale stripes on the forewings.

The salt marsh moth, a type of tiger moth, is strikingly white with small black spots. Males have yellow-orange hindwings. The caterpillars are fast-moving woolly bears ranging from yellowish to brown to blackish.

Fall webworm moths may be either completely white or have varying amounts of dark spots. The larvae are hairy caterpillars that live communally in late summer and fall in tentlike webs on the branch tips of trees.

Litter moths are a subfamily of rather nondescript brownish moths, often with intricate patterns that camouflage them as they rest on tree bark or among leaves on the forest floor.

Adult banded tussock moths have a distinctive checkered pattern on the wings. The fuzzy, dirty gray caterpillars are more familiar, with their pencils or tussocks of longer, black and white hairs.

The giant leopard moth is a beautiful large white moth. The forewings have numerous black spots, many with hollow centers. Some of the dark markings are iridescent blue in the light.

The ornate bella moth, also called the calico moth and rattlebox moth, is one of Missouri’s most attractive moths. The colors, however, are a warning to predators that this moth is toxic if eaten. Even spiders reject them.

The wavy-lined emerald is one of many Missouri moths called emeralds. The emeralds are a subfamily within the geometrid family. Note the scalloped or wavy white lines that run across the wings, pale green fringe on the wings, and a long white stripe running the length of the abdomen.