Forest Pests: Insects, Diseases & Other Damage Agents

Red-striped Juniper Looper (Thera juniperata)

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. Mostly green body with pale and reddish stripes. Yellowish green head with purplish red line down lobes to stemmata and with two small white dots on frons; broad, yellowish band on anterior margin of T1; purplish red thoracic legs. Light blue dorsum, particularly on abdomen; light yellow subdorsal stripe; purplish red spiracular stripe adjoined to white and yellow subspiracular stripe. Narrow yellowish band at hind margin of segments; yellow stripe down center of venter. Up to 17 mm.

Food. Common and creeping junipers.

Life Cycle. One generation. Egg overwinters on foliage. Mature caterpillar present in August and September.

Comments. This caterpillar, which was accidentally introduced from Europe, is cryptic on the foliage of common juniper. It eats not only native junipers, but also introduced ones used in landscape plantings. The red-striped juniper looper apparently is not found very far south of New England. Prentice (1963) has recorded eastern red-cedar as a food plant in southern Canada, but we have never found it on this conifer in New England. Although the native species, Thera contractata, also occurs in the Northeast, we did not encounter it during our sampling.

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