Pitch Pine Looper(Lambdina pellucidaria)
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Description
Brownish and grayish body with spotted head and with light dorsum and darker, striped sides. Grayish head with small brown and large black spots; partly dark yellow prothoracic shield with dark spots; mostly yellow legs. Light gray dorsum speckled with brown; grayish white subdorsal stripe with interdispersed, yellowish brown patches and with dark brown edges; series of grayish, brownish, or blackish longitudinal lines and stripes below subdorsal stripe; brown subspiracular stripe most uniformly colored stripe. Black spiracles; light gray venter with several dark longitudinal lines. Up to 30 mm.
Food
Pitch, red, and other hard pines.
Life Cycle
One generation. Pupa overwinters mainly in soil or debris. Mature caterpillar present from August to November.
Comments
Some experts suspect that the pitch pine looper and the spring hemlock looper, Lambdina athasaria, are the same species because their adults have similar periods of activity and because their females use the same sexual attractant. Although their caterpillars have only subtle differences in color, they use different food plants. We believe that differences in the diet of caterpillars, adult color, and habitat (dry pine forests versus moist balsam fir or hemlock forests) justify the separation of the species.
References
Maier, C.T., C.R. Lemmon, J.M. Fengler, D.F. Schweitzer, and R.C. Reardon. 2004. Caterpillars on the Foliage of Conifers in the Northeastern United States. FHTET-2004-1. Morgantown, WV: USDA Forest Service, Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team; 151 p.
