Owlet Caterpillars of Eastern North America

Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species

“…In total, each hedgerow treatment was searched for a total of 1000 min in both June and July. All caterpillars were identified to species or morphospecies using Wagner 57 , Wagner et al 58 , and various web sources. Caterpillars that could not be identified in the field were measured and then brought to the lab to be reared to adulthood for later identification using the literature and the University of Delaware Insect Reference collection.…”

Many caterpillars in a montane rain forest in Ecuador are not classical herbivores

“…Those species feeding on dead leaves additionally to epiphylls or foliose lichen are possibly either very unspecific feeders, e.g. some Herminiinae (Wagner et al 2011), or feed primarily on fungal biomass, which is likely present to a considerable degree in dead leaves. The overlap between these guilds may well increase even further with additional data becoming available.…”

A new cryptic Sympistis from eastern North America revealed by novel larval phenotype and host plant association (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Oncocnemidinae)

“…Both families are known to contain iridoid glycosides ( Bowers 1991 , Seigler 1998 , Jensen et al 2002 , Lee et al 2010 ). While larval hosts are known for only a small fraction of North American Sympistis ( Troubridge 2008 ), at least among the known hosts, plants with iridoid glycosides figure prominently ( Wagner et al 2011 ). In western North America, Penstemon , in particular, well known to have iridoids ( Stermitz et al 1988 , Krull and Stermitz 1998 ), supports numerous Sympistis species (DLW unpublished data).…”

“…Although Forbes (1954) treated the Triosteum -feeder as a “well-marked food strain” of Adita chionanthi [now Sympistis chionanthi ], it is clear that he suspected that the moth represented a valid species, because he provided differential diagnoses for both the adult: “a little less crispy marked, the anal dash a little diffuse, or located in a blackish smudge,” and the last instar: “head green, shaded behind with pale brownish, body yellow-green, the dorsum largely purple-red, with a paler often greenish dorsal line, and a fine white subdorsal near edge of the purple portion; tubercles i and ii small and white, on it. Three dark green lateral lines, the ground usually darkened between the two lower; a broad whitish stigmata line.” Larvae of the two species are figured in Wagner et al (2011) . Sympistis chionanthi feeds on Fraxinus L., Chionanthus L., and perhaps other members of the Oleaceae , whereas Sympistis forbesi is believed to be associated only with Triosteum L. in the Caprifoliaceae , although larvae can be reared on Fraxinus in the laboratory.…”

“…We think it likely that it is declining or already extinct from much of its former eastern range due to decline in the abundance of Triosteum (feverwort), which fared better in the open agricultural landscapes of the two previous centuries. Increased grazing pressure by white-tailed deer is also thought to be a threat to the host plant and its herbivore fauna ( Wagner et al 2011 ). The only known extant colonies are those present in prairie areas where Triosteum is still locally common.…”