White Pine Cutworm (Xestia badicollis)

Taxonomy

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

Scientific Name

Xestia badicollis

Common Name

Xestia badicollis

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

Yellowish green body with tiny, yellowish white speckles and with dark spiracular and other pale stripes; variable body color. Greenish head. Faint, narrow middorsal stripe; white subdorsal stripe; narrow, dark green spiracular stripe over broad, speckled, yellowish white subspiracular stripe. Narrow, fragmented, white subventral stripe; green venter. Up to 25 mm.

Food

Eastern white pine; less commonly balsam fir, eastern hemlock, eastern larch, white spruce, and probably other conifers.

Life Cycle

One generation. Partly to full-grown caterpillar overwinters in southern New England. Mature caterpillar usually present on tree from May to July and sometimes during late fall in New England.

Comments

This caterpillar also has brown, grayish brown, and grayish green forms. The variable climbing caterpillar, Xestia elimata, and another cutworm, X. praevia, also have variable color and eat some of the same conifers as the white pine cutworm. The three species have overlapping distributional ranges in New England. In addition, X. perquiritata is found in northern New York, New England, and southern Canada where it apparently eats balsam fir and white spruce. Until more caterpillars are examined and reared to adults, we hesitate to suggest ways to separate the Xestia species. Both Xestia species described in this manual previously were considered to be in the genus Anomogyna.