[ **up: [[Arthropods]] | [[Insects]] | [[Lepidoptera (Order)|Lepidopterans]] | [[Erebidae (Family)]] | [[Utethesia (Genus)]]** ] --- # Tiger moth (*Utetheisa ornatrix*) > \[…] also called the ornate bella moth, ornate moth, bella moth or rattlebox moth, is a moth of the subfamily Arctiinae.[^1] --- ## Taxonomy - **[[Life (Biology)]]** - **[[Eukaryotes|Eukaryota (Domain)]]** - **[[Animals|Animalia (Kingdom)]]** - [[Arthropods|Arthropoda (Phylum)]] - [[Insects|Insecta (Class)]] - [[Lepidoptera (Order)]] - [[Erebidae (Family)]] - *[[Utethesia (Genus)]] - *[[Tiger moth|Utetheisa ornatrix]]* <small>TIGER MOTH</small> --- ## Description ### Pheromones [[2025-0321. 'Pheromones are typically secreted by specialized glands or tissues.'|’In some species, pheromones are derived or modified from other sources: tiger moth caterpillars sequester poisons from their milkweed food plants and as adults, males metabolise some of these pyrrolizidine alkaloid poisons into volatile pheromones, attractive to females and indicative of the size of poison gift they will transfer along with sperm at mating. ‘]][^2] > Females of the tiger moth *Utetheisa ornatrix* choose males that produce more pheromones.[^3] [^1]: ’*Utetheisa ornatrix’, *Wikipedia*, updated 13 August 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utetheisa_ornatrix. [^2]: Tristram D. Wyatt, ‘[[Wyatt. ‘Pheromones’, 2017.|Pheromones]]’, *Current Biology*, vol. 27, issue 15 (7 August 2017), p. R741. [^3]: ‘Sex pheromone’, *Wikipedia*, updated 27 August 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_pheromone.