Buchholz's Zale (Zale buchholzi)

Taxonomy

Domain	Eukarya
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Arthropoda
Subphylum	Hexapoda
Class	Insecta
Subclass	Pterygota
Infraclass	Neoptera
Superorder	Holometabola
Order	Lepidoptera
Superfamily	Noctuoidea
Family	Erebidae
Subfamily	Erebinae
Tribe	Omopterini
Genus	Zale

Scientific Name

Zale buchholzi

Common Name

Buchholz's Zale 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

Reddish brown and green body with pale longitudinal lines and stripes. Reddish brown head with white streak on each lobe (extension of subdorsal stripe) and with curved, white line behind stemmata. Mainly green middorsal stripe edged with white; white subdorsal and thin supraspiracular stripes that outline yellowish to greenish brown area; broad, brown spiracular stripe; narrow, white subspiracular stripe. Low, transverse dorsal ridge on A8 and A9 with small, paired tubercles. Prolegs on A3 and A4 reduced in size, and those on A10 directed backward and marked with indistinct brown line laterally. Up to 40 mm.

Food

Pitch and other hard pines.

Life Cycle

One generation. Pupa overwinters in soil. Mature caterpillar present from May to July.

Comments

This caterpillar feeds mainly upon new growth; its first instar sometimes bores into small needles. Buchholz's zale reaches its northern limit in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. The photographed caterpillar was reared from an egg laid by an adult captured in southern New Jersey.