Jul 252012
 
Fall Cankerworm - Alsophila pometaria

Fall Cankerworm – Alsophila pometaria – Geometridae – Guelph, Ontario

Not all moths have showy wings, or even wings to begin with! The Fall Cankerworm (Alsophila pometaria) is a moderate pest in the landscaping industry as the larvae skeletonize leaves of several different trees and as you can see here the females are completely wingless. Females emerge from the leaf litter in the fall and climb up trees and other vertical objects to attract mates (males are winged). As the name suggests, adults are only active in the fall.

The Fall Cankerworm is host to a variety of tachinid species: Blondelia eufitchiae, Cyzenis albicans, Gonia sagax, Blepharomyia spinosa, Smidtia fumiferanae, Phryxe pecosensis, Phryxe vulgaris, Phorocera slossonae, Tachinomyia nigricans, and Winthemia rufopicta.

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Parasite information from A Host-Parasite Catalog of North American Tachinidae Diptera (Arnaud, 1978).

  11 Responses to “Fall Cankerworm – Alsophila pometaria #NMW2012”

Comments (3) Trackbacks (8)
  1. great post! The wingless moths are so bizarre and kinda cute looking.

  2. Whoa. That’s one weird animal!

  3. I’ve got a picture somewhere of another moth without wings, I’ll have to put that on my blog to compete with yours 😉

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