Gray Spring Zale (Zale submediana)

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 submediana

Common Name

Zale submediana

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, brown, gray, and white body with pale middorsal stripe, with dark tubercles on A8, and with light-colored and dark arched areas on side of abdomen; variable amount and shades of gray. Grayish brown head with dark brown reticulation, with white chevron on each lobe, and with curved, white line laterally. Multicolored, middorsal stripe expanded posteriorly on segments; enlarged sections of stripe surrounded by dark brown spot that extends to subdorsal region; arched, white lateral patches underlain by arched, purplish brown areas. Low, transverse dorsal ridge on A8 with paired, dark brown tubercles; much smaller ridge with tubercles on other segments. Prolegs on A3 and A4 reduced in size, and those on A10 directed backward and marked with dark brown line laterally. Up to 40 mm.

Food

Jack, pitch, red and probably other hard pines.

Life Cycle

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

Comments

Some caterpillars of this species are darker gray than the one pictured here. Among the bark mimics, the form described here is the most mottled. The gray spring zale prefers the young needles of pines. The photographed caterpillar was reared from an egg laid by a female captured in southern New Jersey.