Eastern Tent Caterpillar Moth
Malacosoma americana
Insecta
COMMON
Stats
- Lifespan
- Annual
- Size
- Medium
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Activity
- Nocturnal
- Social
- Colony
- Biome
- Temperate forest
- Range
- North America
- Movement
- Flight
- Breeding
- Egg-laying
- Defense
- Herd Safety
- Status
- Common
About
A small reddish-brown moth whose caterpillars are famous for weaving communal silk tents in tree forks each spring, with hundreds of larvae sharing a single structure to thermoregulate. Adults live only a few days and do not feed at all — their sole purpose is to mate and lay the next generation's eggs.
Life cycle
- 1.eggA tiny ribbed egg laid on the underside of a host-plant leaf, hatching within days.
- 2.caterpillarA voracious caterpillar feeds and molts through several instars, growing rapidly.
- 3.cocoonA silk cocoon spun in leaf litter or soil while the body remodels into a winged adult.
- 4.mothA winged adult with feathery antennae and scaled wings, most active after dark.
Learn more
Taxonomy
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Arthropoda
- Class
- Insecta
- Order
- Lepidoptera
- Family
- Lasiocampidae
- Genus
- Malacosoma
- Species
- Malacosoma americana