Note: All links leave to external sites<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greetings, BugFans,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The BugLady photographed this handsome moth on her back porch rail last summer, and she was temporarily mystified when she identified it as a Tobacco budworm moth, because the nearest tobacco farm is probably more than 100 miles west of her.\u00a0Then she found an alternative common name – the Geranium budworm – and since she is the Geranium Queen, it made more sense (and it explained the frass on the bookshelves).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are lots of moths that aren\u2019t big enough or bad enough or beautiful enough to have been studied enough. This isn\u2019t one of them. It gets University Extension Agents riled up throughout tobacco and cotton-growing areas in the southern half of its range.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tobacco budworms (Chloridea virescens<\/em>) (before 2013 they were\u00a0Heliothis virescens<\/em>) are native moths in the Owlet moth family Noctuidae.\u00a0They\u2019re considered an eastern and southwestern species, but they\u2019ve been spotted in Canada, across the vast majority of the lower 48 plus the Caribbean, and sporadically south of the Rio Grande. They produce five or six broods annually in the South, but generally just one or two in the North, and they are too tender to overwinter here.\u00a0Moths seen in the northern parts of the US in the second half of summer may have overwintered in a greenhouse or a sheltered patio or in a potted plant that was brought inside in fall, or they may have drifted north from the southern part of their range.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adults have a wingspread of about one-to one-and-a-half inches and are somewhat variable in color.\u00a0Virescens<\/a><\/em>\u00a0means \u201cbeing or becoming green<\/em>\u201d and while some are greenish<\/a>, many Tobacco budworm moths are tan<\/a>.\u00a0The caterpillars\u2019 color is also variable<\/a> and, as David Wagner says in\u00a0Caterpillars of Eastern North America, \u201cSomehow the larvae end up matching the color of their foodplant.\u00a0The caterpillars found on red geraniums are shades of pink<\/a>, those on ground cherry yellow, and so on.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0(pink flowers make pink frass<\/a>). \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first generation of larvae\u00a0chew deeply into buds (scroll down<\/a>) and the later broods feed on the flowers and seeds.\u00a0They prefer the reproductive tissues, but they\u2019ll also eat leaves, leaf petioles and even stems, and the later generations cause the most damage to plants.\u00a0No picky eaters here – these are generalist feeders!\u00a0They especially like tobacco and cotton, but they eat other agricultural crops like soybeans, flax, squash, tomato, peanuts, peppers, lettuce, and alfalfa and other clovers,.\u00a0Garden flowers like roses, geraniums, morning glory, petunias, nicotiana, chrysanthemums, marigolds, snapdragons, zinnias, and verbenas are on the menu, and, as the bulletins say, so are \u201cweeds\u201d like beardtongue, cranesbill\/wild geranium, dock, lupine, passion flower, ground cherry, and more (\u201cweeds\u201d – so judgy).\u00a0They\u2019re not considered a pest here in God\u2019s Country.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n They are eaten by a variety of insects and spiders, but where some of their predators are concerned, the caterpillars seem to have Super Powers. According to Wikipedia, if a parasitic wasp named\u00a0Cardiochiles nigripes<\/em>\u00a0approaches a caterpillar with the intention of laying an egg on it, a fluid oozes from the caterpillar\u2019s pores \u201cthat causes C. nigriceps to become agitated and groom themselves, allowing the budworm to escape. C. nigriceps also avoid budworms painted with this exudate. It is hypothesized that this exudate may function by overloading the wasp’s sensory receptors<\/em>.\u201d The tachinid fly\u00a0Winthemia rufopicta<\/em>\u00a0may be successful at laying eggs on the exterior of a tobacco budworm caterpillar, \u201cbut upon hatching and trying to penetrate its host,<\/em>\u00a0the caterpillars<\/em>\u00a0react by biting, crushing, puncturing, or trying to eat the parasitoid eggs.<\/em>\u00a0This kills off many of the maggots<\/em>\u201d (Wikipedia). Plus (says Wagner) \u201cMy colleague Scott Smedley and his students recently discovered that the caterpillars manage to transfer the glandular defensive secretions of their foodplants onto their own setae<\/em>\u00a0[hairs],\u00a0and in doing so accrue chemical protection from ants and other natural enemies<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They court with pheromones \u2013 she releases chemicals (perfumes) into the air, but she will not produce them unless she has been in contact with a potential host plant, and a place to lay her eggs is assured.\u00a0He reads her signals with receptors on his antennae and responds, and when she picks up his signal, she stops producing hers.\u00a0Males court with pheromones produced by glands in structures called hair pencils, which pop out of their abdomen.\u00a0The chemicals he produces are \u201ctwofers\u201d \u2013 they send a \u201cback-off\u201d message to other males, and a \u201ccome hither\u201d message to females. If she approves of his scent, it\u2019s \u201cgame on.\u201d\u00a0The odor has both a stimulating and tranquilizing effect on her.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n She lays her eggs<\/a>\u00a0(usually 300 to 500 of them, but as many as 1,500) on buds, blossoms and leaves in the upper parts of plants. Research suggests that she picks as a host the same species of plant that she grew up on.\u00a0The larvae hatch and, if they\u2019re not already there, head for the tips of the plant. Larvae grow faster at warmer temperatures, and when they are mature, they pupate a few inches under the soil<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two big photo references – one to Wisconsin moths<\/a>, and the other a giant collection of caterpillar pictures by wildlife photographer Tom Murray<\/a> (Wisconsin shares many moth species with New York).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The BugLady<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n Note: All links leave to external sites Greetings, BugFans, The BugLady photographed this handsome moth on her back porch rail last summer, and she was temporarily mystified when she identified it as a Tobacco budworm moth, because the nearest tobacco …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32664,"featured_media":14697,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[8],"tags":[607,158,614,787,79,31,786],"class_list":["post-14696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bug-of-the-week","tag-bugs","tag-caterpillars","tag-insects","tag-larvaes","tag-moths","tag-spiders","tag-tobacco-budworm"],"yoast_head":"\n