Forest Pests: Insects, Diseases & Other Damage Agents

Bicolored Angle (Macaria bicolorata)

Maier, C.T., C.R. Lemmon, J.M. Fengler, D.F. Schweitzer, and R.C. Reardon. 2004. Caterpillars on the Foliage of Conifers in the Northeastern United States. FHTET-2004-1. Morgantown, WV: USDA Forest Service, Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team; 151 p.

Description. Green body with marked head and with obvious, pale subdorsal stripe; also purplish form. Green head with lobes marked with brown herringbone pattern; brown streak on lobes with white margins (extensions of subdorsal and spiracular stripes); brownish green thoracic legs. Dark bluish green middorsal stripe; yellowish white subdorsal stripe; mainly dark green between subdorsal stripe and spiracles; diffuse, white and greenish yellow spiracular stripe. Mostly green prolegs; yellowish green venter. Up to 22 mm.

Food. Pitch, red, and other hard pines.

Life Cycle. One to two (or possibly three) generations, with the number increasing southward. Pupa overwinters in soil or debris. Mature caterpillar present from August to October in southern New England, and from June to November in southern New Jersey.

Comments. The bicolored angle, as well as the blurry chocolate angle, Macaria transitaria, and the granite moth, M. granitata, eat the foliage of pitch and other hard pines. The first two can be distinguished because the bicolored angle has more distinct middorsal and subdorsal stripes and fewer wavy, dark longitudinal lines. The granite moth differs because it usually has a bluish green body. The bicolored angle apparently does not occur north of central New Hampshire; northern records from jack pine refer to an undescribed species of Macaria (D. Ferguson, pers. comm.). Until recently, the bicolored angle was known as Semiothisa bicolorata.

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