Lemmer's Pinion (Lithophane lemmeri)

Taxonomy

Domain	Eukarya
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Arthropoda
Subphylum	Hexapoda
Class	Insecta
Subclass	Pterygota
Infraclass	Neoptera
Superorder	Holometabola
Order	Lepidoptera
Superfamily	Noctuoidea
Family	Noctuidae
Subfamily	Noctuinae
Tribe	Xylenini
Subtribe	Xylenina
Genus	Lithophane

Scientific Name

Lithophane lemmeri

Common Name

Lemmer's noctuid 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

Green body strikingly marked with broken, pale stripes and with light-colored spots of different sizes. Green head with small white spot near stemmata; prothorax marked with white and yellow spots. Yellowish middorsal stripe broken at middle of segment; two small white spots on each segment between middorsal and subdorsal stripes; yellow and white subdorsal stripe fused with white, almost perpendicular, bars capped in black. Fragmented, spiracular stripe composed of small white and larger yellow spots on each segment; yellow spots of stripe fused to slanted, white subspiracular bars, especially on abdomen; black spiracles; white subventral spots. Up to 30 mm.

Food

Atlantic white-cedar and eastern red-cedar.

Life Cycle

One generation. Adult overwinters. Mature caterpillar present in June and July in southern New Jersey.

Comments

The elaborate markings of this caterpillar make it remarkably well camouflaged on the foliage of cedars. This species apparently is now absent in New England, although it once occurred in Connecticut. In northern New England, the caterpillar of Lithophane thujae eats northern white-cedar, and that of L. lepida lepida feeds upon jack, pitch, and red pines. The subspecies, L. lepida adipel, is associated with hard pines in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey and in more southern areas.