Blurry Chocolate Angle (Macaria transitaria)

Taxonomy

Domain	Eukarya
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Arthropoda
Subphylum	Hexapoda
Class	Insecta
Subclass	Pterygota
Infraclass	Neoptera
Superorder	Holometabola
Order	Lepidoptera
Superfamily	Geometroidea
Family	Geometridae
Subfamily	Ennominae
Tribe	Macariini
Genus	Macaria

Scientific Name

Macaria transitaria

Common Name

blurry chocolate angle moth

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.

Description

Dull green body with marked head, with pale subdorsal and spiracular stripes, and with many wavy, dark green longitudinal lines; also reddish form. Green head with lobes streaked with reddish brown, partly in darker herringbone pattern; streak on lobes with white margins (extensions of subdorsal and spiracular stripes); brownish green thoracic legs. Indistinct, green middorsal stripe edged with dark olive-green; grayish to yellowish white subdorsal and spiracular stripes, the latter broader; many wavy, olive-green to dark green longitudinal lines between middorsal and spiracular stripes. Up to 24 mm.

Food

Jack, red, pitch, and other hard pines.

Life Cycle

One to two generations. Pupa overwinters in soil or debris. Mature caterpillar present from July to November, but mainly in July and August in southern New England.

Comments

This species formerly was known as Semiothisa transitaria.