Tufted Spruce Caterpillar (Panthea acronyctoides)

Taxonomy

Domain	Eukarya
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Arthropoda
Subphylum	Hexapoda
Class	Insecta
Subclass	Pterygota
Infraclass	Neoptera
Superorder	Holometabola
Order	Lepidoptera
Superfamily	Noctuoidea
Family	Noctuidae
Subfamily	Pantheinae
Genus	Panthea

Scientific Name

Panthea acronyctoides

Common Name

Black Zigzag

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

Black and white body with pale tubercles that bear compact tufts of long hairs or less dense tufts of shorter hairs. Blackish head with some white marks. Prominent, paired, white dorsal hair tufts on T1, A1, and A8; smaller, more sparsely haired tufts on low tubercles that encircle most segments. White middorsal stripe variably expanded over anterior half of most segments; white spot near subdorsal tubercles. Faint, broken, white supraspiracular stripe; angular, white marks extend from subspiracular tubercle upward to margins of segments. Up to 35 mm.

Food

Balsam fir, eastern hemlock, eastern larch, pines, and spruces.

Life Cycle

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

Comments

Ives and Wong (1988) have illustrated a grayish form of the tufted spruce caterpillar from the Prairie Provinces of Canada. In the Northeast, this species occurs mainly in northern areas of New England and New York.