View source for Archive:Caterpillars/Macaria granitata

{{DISPLAYTITLE:Granite Moth (''Macaria granitata'')}}
<btaxobox imgnum=1178044/>
''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==
Bluish green body with marked head and with mostly pale stripes; also purplish form. Greenish head with lobes streaked with brown (some greenish reticulation in brown) to reddish brown; streak on lobes with white margins (extensions of subdorsal and spiracular stripes); bluish frons; brownish thoracic legs with greenish blue base. Dark green middorsal stripe edged faintly with white; white subdorsal stripe with two wavy, dark longitudinal lines immediately below. Diffuse, white and yellowish white spiracular stripe; greenish yellow band at hind margin of segments. Up to 22 mm.

==Food==
Mainly pitch pine in New England; pitch and one or more other hard pines in southern New Jersey.

==Life Cycle==
One to two generations in New England. Pupa overwinters in soil or debris. Mature caterpillar present from July to November, with latest dates in the southern part of the Northeast.

==Comments==
The bluish green body of this species usually separates it from other caterpillars on hard pines. This species formerly was known as Semiothisa granitata.