Oblique Zale (Zale obliqua)

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 obliqua

Common Name

oblique Zale

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, grayish brown body with contrasting broad, pale and dark stripes. Grayish brown head with dark brown reticulation, with white chevron on each lobe, and with curved, white line laterally. White middorsal stripe expanded posteriorly on segments and broadly margined with dark brown stripe; low, transverse dorsal ridge on A8 with paired tubercles; smaller tubercles on ridge on A9; grayish subdorsal stripe. Dark brown spiracular stripe; gray subspiracular stripe; 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, and red pines.

Life Cycle

One generation in New England. Pupa overwinters in soil. Mature caterpillar present from July to September.

Comments

This caterpillar prefers the mature needles of pine. The photographed caterpillar was reared from an egg laid by a female captured in southern New Jersey.