Pine False Looper (Zale duplicata)
From Bugwoodwiki
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Maier, C.T.; Lemmon, C.R.; Fengler, J.M.; Schweitzer, D.F.; Reardon, R.C.; Caterpillars on the Foliage of Conifers in the Northeastern United States. Morgantown, WV. USDA Forest Service. Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. FHTET-2004-01. March 2004. 151 p.
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Description
Purplish brown body with paired tubercles on A8. Gray head with purplish brown reticulation and with white chevron on each lobe. Fragmented, multicolored, wavy middorsal stripe edged with beaded white line; dark purplish brown diagonal spot on posterior half of most segments. Transverse dorsal ridge on A8 with paired tubercles; smaller tubercles on ridge on A9; spiracular swellings with tiny white spots. Prolegs on A3 and A4 reduced in size, and those on A10 directed backward and marked with dark brown line laterally. Up to 30 mm.
Food
Eastern white pine and rarely other pines.
Life Cycle
One generation. Pupa overwinters in soil. Mature caterpillar present in June and July.
Comments
The final instar of this caterpillar and the next four species of Zale apparently are bark mimics. The species are difficult to separate because they are variable in pattern and sometimes color, although the pine false looper usually is the most uniformly colored and the smallest at maturity. A similar species, Zale largera, which eats jack pine in northern New England, apparently is a distinct species.
