Phenology: Buck Moths, in Detail, with Pictures and 2025 Update

Finally, this post has been brought up to date, with fresh new links to each species-specific post on this web site (and a few of the old ones that still worked). If you're looking for a species name that is not listed in this post, search the site; many older species names have gone out of use as the moths they named were determined to belong to species whose names are still used. 

Much has changed in the past twelve years. More photos are available; newer computers can handle more photos, and I've been reminded that the "fair use" law entitles web sites that are free for the public to read to display copies of photos without asking for permission. Google learned to read Spanish, so information about Mexican species became available. This post originally gave a Wikipedia link for each species name--and still does, if the species has a Wikipedia page--but the amount of information available made Wikipedia the final stop rather than the primary source for each web search.

Variations in font size in this post are the result of a Googlitch and should be ignored.

Unfortunately for readers in Virginia who might want to know whether you've found yet another Hemileuca maia or something that, although equally loathsome, is at least less common, the best documented species other than maia seem to live in the Western States. Several species remain undocumented on the Internet.

They all have a lot in common with Hemileuca maia; moths can be identified by their size and colors as different species, but caterpillars seem to show more individual variation than species identity. Here's the basic buck moth:


Photo credit: crookrwhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/richardwc/8292027553/">crookrw
> / Foter.comhttp://foter.com">Foter.com> / CC">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">CC BY-NC-SA

Here is one of the many ways the caterpillar can look. I've never personally seen one that looked like this, but the photos of these animals on the Internet show lots of color and pattern variation, even among litter mates. Where they live, what they eat, and the weather conditions probably affect the caterpillars' coloring. The identifying feature for Hemileuca caterpillars is that they're large caterpillars with stiff branching spines, each one of which contains about as much venom as a bee sting, so if you inadvertently touch these caterpillars you'll remember it for a week or two. There are some small, harmless butterfly caterpillars whose branching spines are prickly but not venomous; younger, smaller stingingworms' spines don't branch. They become seriously nasty after they're more than an inch long.


Photo credit: Odephotohttp://www.flickr.com/photos/odephoto/371587322/">Odephoto
> / Foter.comhttp://foter.com">Foter.com> / CC">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">CC BY-NC-ND

My method for writing this summary was to begin by perusing Wikipedia, www.butterfliesandmoths.org, and mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu. Each species name, here presented in alphabetical order, links to a Wikipedia page but the majority of these Wikipedia pages are hypothetical structures lacking species-specific content. Butterfliesandmoths.org and Moth Photographers Group had more photos, but for some of these moths neither even had a filled-in map. Pnwmoths.biol.wwwu.edu had detailed pages for each species found in the Northwestern States and western Canada.

A few observations seem, based on the information I found, to apply to all the six to sixty-plus, depending on whom you ask, kinds of Hemileuca:

1. All are most often seen as caterpillars. Young caterpillars have long stiff hairs and are gregarious; older caterpillars have branching, bristling hairs and move out on their own, apparently confident that nothing wants to touch them, much less eat them. Their only predators are smaller insects that can parasitize the caterpillars. Where information was available, all sources agree that all Hemileuca caterpillars are poisonous on contact.

2. Although logging and DDT reduced insect populations to the point where these pest species became rare (and some probably always were just uncommon variant forms of other species), all these caterpillars look to normal observers like something that needs killing. That is because they are. Public-spirited people do not allow these animals to reproduce. If you've never seen one before, you've been lucky...and even if you don't let the first one you see survive, you'll probably see more of them than you could possibly want to see if you're in the same place next year.

3. All the moths fly in late summer or autumn. They are smaller than the other big silk moths and fly more energetically. They have a very short life as moths (they don't eat) and spend most of it looking for mates, so the easiest way to catch a group is to catch one individual and wait for others to come calling on the first one. Many fly during the daytime. Collecting them (in boxes) is a relatively safe and easy way to control local populations. Some people think the wings are pretty, and a few species or color types are considered rare, but the main reward of collecting buck moths is that people in your neighborhood will be less likely to meet the caterpillars next year.

Now for the moth pictures...It's not at all clear that all of these moths are in fact distinct species. Sorting them out is still a job for experts, with variations even among litter mates and crossbreeding likely to occur.

Hemileuca annulata Ferguson, 1971

Older sources list annulata as a sub-species of eglanterina. Newer sources sometimes say there are only six or eight distinct species of Hemileuca anyway. 

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2023/05/hemileuca-annulata-subspecies-or.html

Hemileuca artemis Packard, 1893

Moths have black bodies, gray wings with wide creamy-white bands. Often classified as a subspecies of H. nevadensis, 

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2023/08/hemileuca-artemis.html

Hemileuca burnsi J.H. Watson, 1910

"Burns' Buck Moth." Habitat: California, Arizona, Nevada. Food plants: horsebrush, Fremont Indigo, and Desert Almond. Moths are off-white with brown markings. Caterpillars hatch in February and March; moths fly between August and November. Detailed life history of captive specimens here:

http://lepidoptera.jcmdi.com/m/Sat/burnsi/burnsir.html

Full-length post: 

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2023/05/hemileuca-burnsi.html

Hemileuca californica (Wright, 1888)

Now considered a subspecies of Hemileuca nevadensis, but enough was written about it to generate a page about how it was seen as a different species and then ruled not to be one.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2023/08/hemileuca-californica.html

Hemileuca chinatiensis (Tinkham, 1943)

"Chinati Sheep Moth." Habitat: west Texas, southern New Mexico. Food plants: sumac, mimosa, mahonia, acacia and others with, according to http://www.texasento.net/chinatiensis.htm, "a marked preference for flower buds over foliage." Moths are dark drab with white markings on wings and yellowish abdomens.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2023/11/hemileuca-chinatiensis.html

Hemileuca conwayae Peigler, 1985

Some entomology sites have created pages for this species; most regard it as a subspecies of H. chinatiensis.

Hemileuca diana (Packard, 1874) 

Some sources persist in recognizing this species. More sources have classified it as a subspecies of H. grotei; it does not have its own Wikipedia page. Here is what I found about it.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2023/12/hemileuca-diana.html
;
Hemileuca dyari (Draudt, 1930)

Most documents come from Spanish-speaking countries, because that's where the moths live. 

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2023/12/hemileuca-dyari.html

Hemileuca eglanterina (Boisduval, 1852)

"Sheep Moth," "Elegant Sheep Moth," "Western Sheep Moth." Habitat: California. Food plants: roses, buckthorns, coffeeberry, ceanothus. Moths are orange and black, some with a contrast between pinkish orange fore wings and yellowish orange hind wings. Caterpillars are described as black with yellow or orange bristles; Steve Stone shares a photo of one with clearly marked dark and light stripes on the skin. Galleries of adult moths' color patterns here:

http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/species.php?hodges=7744

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemileuca_eglanterina shows this display specimen, plus a few photos of living moths at rest with their wings folded:

Photo By Lsadonkey - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48560453

I worried that the full-length post might crash people's browsers. No one complained, so more photos were included in later posts. Lens now offers to help trace photos, although I tried to credit each one either to the photographer or to the science site where I found it.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2023/07/hemileuca-eglanterina-warning-20-photos.html

Hemileuca electra Wright, 1884

Habitat: California, Arizona, Nevada. Food plants: California Buckwheat. Moths have dark gray to black and white fore wings, vivid orange and black hind wings, orange abdominal segments. Caterpillars may have distinct stripes. Moths fly in September. Here's a photo essay by someone who reared an electra family. 

http://lepidoptera.jcmdi.com/m/Sat/electra/electrar.html

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/01/hemileuca-electra.html

Hemileuca griffini Tuskes, 1978

"Griffin's Sheep Moth." Habitat: Arizona-Utah border. Food plants: "Black Brush." Moths are relatively small for silk moths, only about a two-inch wingspread; brownish or blackish gray and white wings, brown or orange body. BugGuide.net shows a caterpillar with well defined black and white lengthwise stripes and greenish bristles.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/01/hemileuca-griffini.html

Hemileuca grotei Grote & Robinson, 1868

"Grote's Buck Moth." Habitat: Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado. Moths are dark gray and white (patterned very much like maia) with an interesting cryptic stripe pattern on the abdomen. Caterpillars are drab and mottled; this BugGuide photo looks remarkably like maia:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/623812

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/02/hemileuca-grotei.html

Hemileuca hera (Harris, 1841)

Google shrank the moth in order to make room for the profile. In real life these moths' wingspreads cover at least the palm of my hand, sometimes even yours. More recent photo provided to Wikipedia By Alan Vernon - Flickr: Hera Buckmoth (Hemileuca hera), CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18502804 .

"Sagebrush Sheep Moth." Habitat: Western North America from Saskatchewan and New Mexico west. Food plants: primarily sagebrush, can eat lupine and wild buckwheat. Moths are black and white. Caterpillars are predominantly black and have noticeable stripes down the sides. They can live almost two years, spending one winter in egg form and the next in pupal form. 

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/02/hemileuca-hera.html

Hemileuca hualapai (Neumoegen, 1882)

"Hualapai Buck Moth." Habitat: Arizona, New Mexico, Mexico. Food plants include grass. Moths have off-white wings and reddish or orange bodies. Caterpillars may have both lengthwise stripes and crosswise rings, giving some individuals a sort of plaid coloring, or they may have neither, like this drab individual:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54352856@N04/7882445246/

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/03/hemileuca-hualapai.html

Hemileuca juarezia  (Brechlin, 2014)

Now usually classified as a species of Coloradia, rather than Hemileuca.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/06/hemileuca-or-coloradia-juarezia.html

Hemileuca juno Packard, 1872

"Juno Buck Moth" or "Mesquite Buck Moth." Habitat: along the U.S.-Mexican border. Food plant: mesquite. Moths are dark gray or black and white, and fly in September or up into December. Moths emerge from their pupal shells in the morning, mate if possible that afternoon, and lay eggs in the evening. Caterpillars could be confused with H. maia, or may have distinct stripes and red bristles. Some pupae may survive, without hatching into moths, through two or three winters.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/08/hemileuca-juno-post-for-7424.html

Hemileuca lares (Druce, 1897)

Pages had been created for this species, but not filled in with information, in 2013. By 2024 I was able to find enough information for a page:

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/08/hemileuca-lares-post-for-71124.html

Hemileuca lex (Druce, 1897)

Pages had been created, but not filled in with information. What Google found in 2024 included live photos.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/08/hemileuca-lex-post-for-71824.html

Hemileuca lucina H. Edwards, 1887

"New England Buck Moth." There's disagreement about whether they're ever found anywhere but New England. Moths and caterpillars that look just like them, but don't share their food preference, are found in other Eastern States; should they be counted as lucina or as maia? Food plant: meadowsweet when the caterpillars first hatch, leaves of trees and bushes later on; like maia, the mature caterpillars are apt to infest orchards and berry patches just when the fruit ripens. Moths have dark gray and white wings, dark gray bodies with red or orange spots. Caterpillars photographed here look like some I've seen in Virginia that may have been H. maia:

http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/species.php?hodges=7732

...except for the tapered shape and single rosette on the rearmost segment with rosettes. Is this the distinguishing shape of lucina, or just another variation? They seem to be as diverse as maia. 

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/08/hemileuca-lucina-post-for-72524.html

Hemileuca magnifica (Rotger, 1948)

Magnificent indeed. Habitat: Utah, Arizona, Colorado. Moths are big and showy with dramatic black and white wings, yellowish heads and patches of orange on mostly black bodies. Sometimes classified as a subspecies of hera.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/08/hemileuca-magnifica-post-for-8124.html

Hemileuca maia (Drury, 1773)

"Buck Moth." Habitat: Eastern North America from Texas and Kansas east. Food plants: primarily oak, but late-stage caterpillars nibble on many other plants and particularly favor cherry, blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry, which they visit just when the fruit is ripe. Moths are dark gray and off-white, can look black and white, with red patches on the body. Caterpillars are mottled; predominant colors and patterns vary. Some researchers classify all Hemileucas found in the Eastern States as variants of maia while others, going by shapes and colors, think the Western species sometimes move east.

This is, deservingly, the most loathed moth in North America. Bug Guide shows a picture of a well camouflaged caterpillar and the rash it raised on a human hand here:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/328568/bgimage

Butterfliesandmoths.org has a photo that seems to explain the name "Buck Moth" for this whole group, although the usual explanation is that the moths fly during deer hunting season (in some places).

http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Hemileuca-maia

Note striking resemblance to H. lucina--actually all of these species can look very much alike! Photo donated By Gerald J. Lenhard, Louiana State Univ, Bugwood.org - http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=0014195, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7815312

Hemileuca mania (Druce, 1897)

When I typed this name into Google, the system initially confused mania with maia. However, mania is a separate species, found in Veracruz in Mexico. That was about all the English-language Internet has to say about it in 2013. By 2024...

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/08/hemileuca-mania.html

Hemileuca marillia Dyar, 1911

A formal scientific bulletin described this species as "known only from a single specimen found in La Paz, Lower California." By 2024:

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/08/hemileuca-marillia.html

Hemileuca menyanthevora (Pavulaan, 2020)

This post includes information about another controversial species, H. latifascia. While menyanthevora looks just like maia and even has similar DNA, it has different habits and does not crossbreed with maia. It seems more closely "related" to latifascia, but these species don't live in the same places so it's hard to explain how one might have evolved into the other.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/09/hemileuca-menyanthevora-bog-bean-buck.html

Hemileuca mexicana (Druce, 1887)

Sometimes links to Mexican sites work from the US, sometimes not.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/09/hemileuca-mexicana.html

Hemileuca neumoegeni (H. Edwards, 1881)

"Neumoegen's Buck Moth." Habitat: Southwestern U.S. from California to Colorado. Food plants: squawbush, Desert Almond. Moths have white wings with blackish markings, white upper bodies, russet on abdomen. This photo shows that young caterpillars look less bristly than older caterpillars, which seems to be true for several species, and also that color variation is present even before the caterpillars start wandering about:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/516342

Full-length post: 

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/09/hemileuca-neumoegeni.html

Hemileuca nevadensis Stretch, 1872

"Nevada Buck Moth." Habitat: Western North America from Michigan west. Very similar to H. maia, such that these species and some others are sometimes referred to as "the maia-nevadensis complex" and some scientists think they should all be classified as one species. Food plants: trees in the willow and poplar families, alder, cottonwood. Moths have black and white fore wings, black and white or yellow hind wings, striped bodies. Caterpillars may or may not have a stripe along the side. Their colors can vary as widely as maia's, and "can get pretty confusing" in the Central States:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/649960

Here's an informative, though ultimately alarming, blog post showing several stages in the lives of moths and caterpillars. The moths look a little closer to true black and white than maia, although that could be individual variation, and these individual caterpillars are vividly striped.

http://www.aprairiehaven.com/?page_id=11042

The alarming part is that this Wisconsin blogger deliberately introduced stingingworms to an area that had previously been free from them. Although this web site tries to avoid calling for violence, we have to consider the deliberate release of any stingingworm, anywhere, as a violent act. "Don'tharm anyone"? They don't kill humans, but they certainly cause pain and discourage people from working and playing outdoors.

Hemileuca numa (Druce, 1887)

Found only in Mexico.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/10/hemileuca-numa.html

Hemileuca nuttalli (Strecker, 1875)

Habitat: Western North America, Colorado to British Columbia westward. Food plants: bitterbrush, snowberry, currants. Moths fly between July and September. Moths have white and/or yellow and black wings, black and yellow bodies. Caterpillars may share this black-white-and-yellow color scheme.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/10/hemileuca-nuttalli.html

Hemileuca oliviae Cockerell, 1898

"Range Caterpillar Moth." Habitat: New Mexico, Colorado, western tip of Oklahoma, south into Mexico. Food plant: grass and shrubs. Moths have off-white wings, brown bodies. This species became a major pest when local populations exploded in the early twentieth century. The population explosion may have been caused by attempts to poison the moths in the first place; it was used as an excuse for aerial spraying, which probably exacerbated the problem. Caterpillars ate the pastures where people were trying to raise cows and sheep, munched hopelessly on crop plants, then starved in such numbers that "their bodies poison the land," Westerners wrote. Today the species is kept in ecological balance by its natural predators.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/10/hemileuca-oliviae.html

Hemileuca peigleri Lemaire, 1981

"Texas Buck Moth." Habitat: Texas. Food plant: oaks. Moths are dark gray and white, with proportionately long bodies; bodies are mostly blackish with whitish, yellowish, or orangish patches. Resemblance to maia is strong. Caterpillars can hatch as early as February and pupate in May or June; moths emerge in November and even December.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/11/hemileuca-peigleri.html

Hemileuca peninsularis Lemaire, 1993

Peninsularis refers to the peninsula of Baja California. "Baja Buck Moth."

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/11/hemileuca-peninsularis.html

Hemileuca rubridorsa R. Felder & Rogenhofer, 1874

Found in Mexico, and rare enough that somebody seems to be trying to sell a preserved specimen on E-Bay.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/11/hemileuca-rubridorsa.html

Hemileuca siriae (Brechlin, 2014)

This species was recently given its own name on the basis of DNA studies, and is not recognized by all entomologists. It looks and behaves just like species with different DNA.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/11/hemileuca-siriae.html

Hemileuca slosseri Peigler & Stone, 1989

"Slosser's Buck Moth." Habitat: Texas. Food plant: "shinnery oak," a weed that has sometimes been sprayed or burned because it also harbors boll weevils. Moths are gray and white with yellowish patches on the body. They fly after the first cold nights of autumn, typically in November.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/12/hemileuca-slosseri.html

Hemileuca sororia (H. Edwards, 1881)

Back in 1898, T.D.A. Cockerell published a one-page "book" identifying this as a new species. Since then most sources have kept it on lists but not a great deal more has been written about it.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/12/hemileuca-sororia.html

Hemileuca stonei Lemaire, 1993

Habitat: Arizona. Moths are drab with white or yellowish patterns on the wings, white or yellowish heads, and reddish patches on the body.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/12/hemileuca-stonei.html

Hemileuca tricolor (Packard, 1872)

"Tricolor Buck Moth." Habitat: Arizona and New Mexico. Food plants: mesquite and paloverde. Moths have gray and white fore wings with yellow-orange spots, and white or brown hind wings.


Photo credit: kibuyuhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/davidbygott/4351415562/">kibuyu
> / Foter.comhttp://foter.com">Foter.com> / CC">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">CC BY-NC-SA

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2024/12/hemileuca-tricolor.html

Hemileuca warreni (Pavulaan, 2020)

"Florida Buck Moth." Scientists voted to start listing this as a distinct species, rather than a subspecies of maia, in 2023. Its populations are increasing in Florida, again probably as a side effect of use of pesticide sprays. It has the potential to become a serious nuisance. For mercy's sake, if you see this thing, don't spray. Sticks and stones are much more effective population controls.

https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2025/01/hemileuca-warreni-emergent-nuisance.html