[3][4] The moth prefers cold climates with temperate seasonality, as the larvae overwinter,[3] and preferentially chooses host plants that produce pyrrolizidine alkaloids.

The colours are also ideal for frightening predators such as small birds—the moth normally hides its hindwings under the cryptic forewings when resting.

Between stored toxins, conspicuous warning coloration, and sound cues that are generated mostly as a response to bats, A. caja clearly presents itself as an inedible target for predators.

The only constant quality of a habitat for these animals is that it must be seasonal and cool, and like many members of Genus Arctia, tropical climates do not suit garden tiger moth larvae or adults.

[citation needed] A. caja hatches at the end of summer (from August to September), overwinters once, reemerges in spring, and finishes growth by June.

[9] They have red hairs on their cervical regions with glands nearby and patterning across the wings that is meant to warn and advertise toxicity (neurotoxic choline esters).

[12] While not often eaten due to its toxicity, naïve birds will on rare occasion consume either the adult or larval stages of this species.

[10][5][11] The larval form of A. caja is parasitized by quite a few endoparasites, which usually grow as larvae inside the living host (in this case a caterpillar).

[citation needed] A similar compound is found in the tissues of the adults, with the eggs, gonads, and abdomens having the highest concentrations.

[5] Arctia caja is very well adapted to cold temperate climates, and is closely related to many other tiger moths both molecularly and genetically.

Although it has variable patterning, it is still quite genetically and molecularly similar to other species that have been separated from A. caja due to appearance, such as A. intercalaris, A. martinhoneyi, A. thibetica, A. brachyptera, and A. opulenta.

The plan aims to provide greater habitat protection and conservation, with the hopes of stabilizing the A. caja populations that remain in the UK.

Concerns such as food sterility are quickly resolved, along with issues of gathering hard to find or cultivate host plant material.

Many larvae, including those of A. caja, can consume synthetic food, which is based primarily on agar, powdered cellulose, cabbage, sucrose, salts, and wheat germ.