What is Scarlet tiger moth?
{{Taxobox | name = Scarlet Tiger Moth | image = Callimorpha.dominula.jpg | image_width = 250px | regnum = [[Animal]]ia | phylum = [[Arthropod]]a | classis = [[Insect]]a | ordo = [[Lepidoptera]] | familia = [[Arctiidae]] | genus = ''[[Callimorpha]]'' | binomial = ''Callimorpha dominula'' | synonyms = <center>''Panaxia dominula''</center> }} [[File:Callimorpha dominula caterpillar.jpg|thumb|right|230px|The caterpillar is also protected by warning colouration.]] [[File:Callimorpha dominula camouflaged.jpg|thumb|right|230px|At rest in bright light it is rather visible, but in a wood with low light it is well camouflaged.]] The '''Scarlet Tiger Moth''' (''Callimorpha dominula'', formerly ''Panaxia dominula'') is a colourful dayflying moth of Europe and the near East. It belongs to the tiger moth family, [[Arctiidae]]. The [[caterpillar]]s feed mostly on [[comfrey]] (''Symphytum officinale''). The moth [[imago]] flies by day, and has both [[cryptic]] colouring on the front wings, and [[warning colour]] on the hind wings. If disturbed it jinks the front wings forward to show the red warning flash on the hind wings. It can occur in rare colour [[polymorphism|morphs]], one with yellow hindwings and body and one with extended black on hindwings. Yellow, black and red are common warning colours in insects and other animals. The three morphs occurring in the population at the [[Cothill]] reserve in [[Oxfordshire]] have been studied for many years, including research by [[E.B. Ford]] and [[R.A. Fisher]].<ref>[[Ronald Fisher|Fisher, R.A.]] and [[E.B. Ford|Ford E.B.]] 1947. The spread of a gene in natural conditions in a colony of the moth ''Panaxia dominula'' L. ''Heredity'' '''1''':143–174 [http://www.library.adelaide.edu.au/digitised/fisher/219.pdf PDF 1.8 MB] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040804015319/http://www.library.adelaide.edu.au/digitised/fisher/219.pdf |date=2004-08-04 }}</ref><ref>Ford E.B. and Sheppard P.M. 1969. The medionigra polymorphism of ''Panaxia dominula''. ''Heredity'' '''24''':112–13