• French common name: Féralie de Comstock
• Scientific name: Feralia comstocki Grote
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Arthropoda
• Class: Insecta
• Order: Lepidoptera
• Family: Noctuidae

Distribution

• Canada

Damage, symptoms and biology

Feralia comstocki is a common innocuous solitary defoliator.

Mature larva to 30 mm long. Head, pale green, unmarked. Body, green with bright white middorsal and subdorsal stripes; spiracular stripe alternating white and yellow fringed above with red; linear yellowish green subspiracular markings above abdominal prolegs.

This species overwinters in the pupal stage. Adults emerge May to June. Larvae are present June to August and pupation occurs in August.

Other information

Feralia jocosa is similar but differs in that the white, yellow and red spiracular stripe is broken into discrete segments rather than continuous.

Canadian Forest Service Publications

Diet and feeding behaviour

• Phyllophagous: Feeds on the leaves of plants.
  • Free-living defoliator: Feeds on and moves about freely on foliage.

Information on host(s)

Main host(s)

• Balsam fir
• Eastern white pine
• Engelmann spruce
• Jack pine
• Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir
• Subalpine fir
• Western hemlock
• White spruce

Photos

Larva on eastern white pine

Thérèse Arcand

Larva on jack pine

Thérèse Arcand

Lateral view of mature larva, on western hemlock