Forest Pests: Insects, Diseases & Other Damage Agents

False Pine Looper (Nepytia pellucidaria)

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. Flamboyant, multicolored body with spotted head and with distinct longitudinal lines and stripes. Mostly orange-brown head and prothoracic shield with large black spots; purplish to black thoracic legs. Orange-brown dorsum with faint, darker middorsal stripe; white and yellow subdorsal stripe with black longitudinal line at margins; lavender area below with two more black lines (lower one essentially supraspiracular stripe). Very broad, yellow spiracular stripe; black spiracles; prolegs and anal plate with large black spots, usually coalesced into bar on prolegs on A10. Up to 25 mm.

Food. Pitch, red, and possibly other hard pines.

Life Cycle. One generation. Egg presumably overwinters. Mature caterpillar present mostly in August and September in Maine.

Comments. The false pine looper cannot always reliably be separated from the festive pine looper, Nepytia species, although the former usually has slightly darker orange on the body and thoracic legs and has larger, merged spots on the last pair of prolegs. The false pine looper was not collected anywhere in the Northeast between about 1950 and the late 1990s. The reason for its apparent absence during 50 years is unknown.

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