Spring Hemlock Looper (Lambdina athasaria)

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	Lambdina
Species	Lambdina fervidaria

Scientific Name

Lambdina fervidaria athasaria

Common Name

spring hemlock 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

Brownish and grayish body with spotted head and with light dorsum and darker, striped sides. Grayish head with small brown and large black spots; partly dark yellow prothoracic shield with dark spots; gray thoracic legs tinted with yellow. Mostly light gray dorsum spotted with brown and black; grayish white subdorsal stripe with interdispersed, brownish areas and with dark brown edges; series of grayish, brownish, or blackish longitudinal lines and stripes below subdorsal stripe. Black spiracles; light gray venter with several dark longitudinal lines. Up to 30 mm.

Food

Eastern hemlock; less commonly balsam fir and spruces.

Life Cycle

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

Comments

We consider this species to be distinct from the curve-lined looper, Lambdina fervidaria, which has a paler caterpillar that prefers to eat oaks, Quercus species. Unlike the spring hemlock looper, the curve-lined looper has two generations per year. The spring hemlock looper has an outbreak every 40 to 50 years; the last one in New England occurred during the late 1980s and early 1990s.