Arctiids (tiger moths) are primarily nocturnal insects that employ a defense mechanism of emitting high-pitched noises to confuse bats as to their exact location, thus evading predation. Males also use these high-pitched noises to attract potential females for mating. It is currently thought that the use of high-pitched noises evolved from their use as a defense mechanism. An initial morphological study tentatively corroborates this scenario, but this tree needs further testing by an independent data set. We have sequenced multiple molecular markers (28S rDNA, 18SrDNA, COI-II, Histone 3, Elongation factor-1 alpha) for 50 species representing nearly all arctiid subfamilies. Trees were reconstructed via Direct Optimization, and behavioral characters mapped on this topology to test this hypothesis.