Northeastern Pine Zale (Zale curema)

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 curema

Common Name

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

Green body with brownish head and pale stripes. Grayish green head with brown reticulation (making the head appear brown), with white streak (extension of subdorsal stripe) on each lobe, and with curved, white line behind stemmata; mostly brown thoracic legs. Green middorsal stripe trimmed with white; broad, white subdorsal stripe; very faint, whitish supraspiracular stripe; yellowish white spiracular stripe. Low, transverse dorsal ridge on A8 with small, paired tubercles; small ridge on A9 with barely visible tubercles. Prolegs on A3 and A4 reduced in size, and those on A10 directed backward and marked with brown line laterally. Up to 35 mm.

Food

Pitch and possibly other hard pines.

Life Cycle

One generation. Pupa overwinters in soil. Mature caterpillar present in June and July.

Comments

This caterpillar prefers to eat the young needles of pine. The photographed caterpillar was collected on pitch pine in Connecticut. This species tends to be uncommon.