Gray-banded Zale (Zale squamularis)

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 squamularis

Common Name

gray-banded 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

Speckled, brownish body with contrasting broad, pale and dark stripes and with distinct tubercles on A8. Light brown head with dark brown reticulation, with white chevron on each lobe, and with curved, white line laterally. Grayish white middorsal stripe expanded posteriorly on each segment and edged with wide, dark brown stripe; grayish subdorsal, brown spiracular, and grayish subspiracular stripes. Low, transverse dorsal ridge on A8 with paired tubercles; smaller tubercles on ridge on A9. Prolegs on A3 and A4 reduced in size, and those on A10 directed backward and marked with dark brown line laterally. Up to 35 mm.

Food

Pitch and possibly other pines.

Life Cycle

Two to three generations (last two are partial) in southern New Jersey. Pupa overwinters in soil. Mature caterpillar present from June to October.

Comments

This caterpillar prefers the mature needles of pine. It apparently reaches the northern limit of its range on Long Island, New York, and in northeastern Pennsylvania. The photographed caterpillar was reared from an egg laid by a female captured in southern New Jersey.