Northern Pine Sphinx (Lapara bombycoides)

Taxonomy

Domain	Eukarya
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Arthropoda
Subphylum	Hexapoda
Class	Insecta
Subclass	Pterygota
Infraclass	Neoptera
Superorder	Holometabola
Order	Lepidoptera
Superfamily	Bombycoidea
Family	Sphingidae
Subfamily	Sphinginae
Tribe	Sphingini
Genus	Lapara

Scientific Name

Lapara bombycoides

Common Name

northern pine sphinx

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 distinctly marked head, mostly purplish brown dorsum, and pale stripes; variable amount of purplish brown dorsally and laterally. Head with yellow streak from top of lobes to stemmata, with inverted dark brown "V" below yellow at crest, and with green laterally. Purplish brown dorsum with yellowish stripe at outer margins; yellow and white subdorsal and subspiracular stripes; area around black spiracles (particularly toward rear of abdomen) and on prolegs with varying amounts of purple or purplish brown. Body speckled with yellow or yellowish white; horn absent. Up to 50 mm.

Food

Pines.

Life Cycle

One generation. Pupa overwinters in soil. Mature caterpillar present in August and September.

Comments

We have not found satisfactory characteristics to separate the caterpillars of this species and the pine sphinx, Lapara coniferarum, which also occurs in the Northeast. Only the northern pine sphinx ranges north of southern Maine.