Pyrrharctia isabella

Isabella tiger moth
	Adult
	Woollybear caterpillar
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Erebidae
Genus:	Pyrrharctia
Species:	P. isabella
Binomial name
	Pyrrharctia isabella; (J. E. Smith, 1797)
Synonyms
	Phalaena isabella J. E. Smith, 1797; Pyrrharctia californica Packard, 1864;

The Isabella tiger moth (Pyrrharctia isabella) lives in temperate and cold northern regions, including the Arctic.

Its caterpillar, the banded woollybear larva, overwinters and freezes solid. It produces a body fluid which helps its tissues avoid cold damage. In the spring it thaws out, emerges from its hibernaculum, eats, and grows in the short Arctic summer.

In temperate climates, this species has one or two broods depending on its location. In the Arctic, the warm period is so short that a woollybear feeds for several summers before it pupates. Each winter it freezes. A woollybear of another species lives through as many as 14 winters, before it pupates, and becomes an adult, having only a few-day mating period.^[1]

Pyrrharctia Isabella Media

A Black Woolly Bear (a caterpillar of the Isabella Tiger Moth (Pyrrharctia isabella)) forages in early spring at Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada.
Wooly Bear.
Woollybear (Pyrrharctia isabella) - Caterpillar - Devonian Fossil Gorge - Iowa City
Isabella tiger moth with hindwings
Fresh laid Isabella tiger moth eggs
Mature Isabella tiger moth eggs

References

↑ David Attenborough series Frozen Planet, co-produced by the BBC tv. Series 1, episode 2, at around 26min 45sec.

[1] David Attenborough series Frozen Planet, co-produced by the BBC tv. Series 1, episode 2, at around 26min 45sec.

[1]