The Jersey tiger moth (Euplagia quadripunctaria, Erebidae) is a day-flying European moth with boldly patterned black-and-cream striped forewings and vivid orange-red hindwings, giving it its alternative common name 'Spanish flag'. Adults fly July through September, nectaring conspicuously in daylight on flowers including hemp-agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum); larvae are polyphagous, overwintering as small caterpillars on nettles, ground-ivy, plantains, and other low herbs. Its range spans most of Europe from the Baltic south to the Mediterranean, east through Turkey and the Caucasus to Iran, with notable ongoing range expansion northward through Britain. It is the sole lepidopteran designated a priority species under Annex II of the EU Habitats Directive, and its preference for nectar-rich garden plants makes it a visible and distinctive garden visitor in southern and central Europe.

Nectar plants · 2

Broadly distributed across Europe from the southern fringe of Scandinavia and Estonia and Latvia south to the Mediterranean coasts and islands, and east through Turkey, the Near East, the Caucasus, northern Iran, and southern Turkmenistan (Kopetdagh Mountains). Largely absent from most of Scandinavia and from Ireland. UK populations, once restricted to the Channel Islands and south Devon, have expanded substantially since the 2000s and are now widespread across southern England with scattered records reaching the Midlands and East Anglia.