Northern Pine Looper (Caripeta piniata)

Taxonomy

Domain	Eukarya
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Arthropoda
Subphylum	Hexapoda
Class	Insecta
Subclass	Pterygota
Infraclass	Neoptera
Superorder	Holometabola
Order	Lepidoptera
Superfamily	Geometroidea
Family	Geometridae
Subfamily	Ennominae
Tribe	Ennomini
Genus	Caripeta

Scientific Name

Caripeta piniata

Common Name

northern pine looper

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

Gray and purplish brown body with distinct, but low, transverse dorsal ridges and usually with pale dorsal and lateral patches. Grayish head with purple and dark brown lobes marked in herringbone pattern. Indistinct, multicolored, broken middorsal stripe. On most segments, brownish subdorsal patch before dorsal ridge that has small, paired tubercles. Light gray spot before dark yellow spiracles topped with short, dark brown oblique line. Up to 35 mm.

Food

Pines.

Life Cycle

One generation. Pupa overwinters in soil or debris. Mature caterpillar present from July to October.

Comments

An apparently unnamed species of Caripeta, whose caterpillar is similar to the northern pine looper, occurs along the coast of Connecticut to New Jersey. At this time, we do not know how to separate the caterpillars of the two species, although the undescribed one apparently has a partial spring generation and a late summer to fall one. Thus, some of the early and late records for the northern pine looper may represent the unnamed species.