Moths of the family Arctiidae, with their brilliant coloration, spectacular courtship rituals, and bizarre defenses, are wonders of the natural world. Unpalatable by virtue of secondary chemicals acquired from their hostplants, these moths advertise their defenses by their coloration and oftenmimic butterflies, wasps, bees, stinkbugs, and even cockroaches. They have ears with which they hear the echolocation of bats, and some answer with aposematic warnings, while some may jam the bats' sonar. This book, the first written on this fascinating group, documents how tiger moths and woolly bears-the adults and larvae of the Arctiidae-flourish in a world rife with predators, parasites, and competitors. The contributing authors' accounts, each written by a recognized expert in the field, weavetogether seminal studies on phylogeny and behavior, natural history, chemical communication, mate choice and sexual selection, chemical ecology, parasite-host relationships, self medication, animal orientation, predator-prey interactions, mimicry, adaptive coloration, speciation, biodiversity, andmore.

William E. Conner has studied animal behavior and insect biology for more than thirty years. Conner is professor of biology at Wake Forest University, and received his PhD at Cornell. His studies of pheromonal and acoustic communication between the sexes and high-frequency sound communication between bats and moths have taken him from North Carolina, South Florida, and Arizona to mainland Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. Recent findings include evidence for acoustic warning signals produced by moths and acoustic mimicry in the bat-moth arms race.