Speckled green fruitworm
- French common name: Orthosie verte
- Scientific name: Orthosia hibisci (Guenée)
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Lepidoptera
- Family: Noctuidae
Distribution
Canada
This species is generally distributed throughout British Columbia from the Skeena and upper Fraser drainages south; it also occurs east to Newfoundland.
Damage, symptoms and biology
Orthosia hibisci is a common innocuous solitary defoliator.
Mature larva up to 30 mm long. Head, unmarked green. Body, yellowish green speckled with white spots; white middorsal, subdorsal and spiracular lines.
This species overwinters as a pupa buried in the duff. Adults emerge from April to May; larvae are present from May to August and pupation occurs in August.
Canadian Forest Service Publications
Information on host(s)
The principal coniferous hosts of Orthosia hibisci are Engelmann spruce and white spruce; other coniferous hosts include Douglas-fir and tamarack. Principal hardwood hosts are trembling aspen, willow and birch.
Main host(s)
Alaska paper birch, balsam willow, Bebb willow, birch, black willow, blueleaf birch, cherry birch, Douglas-fir, dwarf birch, Engelmann spruce, European white birch, feltleaf willow, golden weeping willow, grey birch, heartleaf willow, hooker willow, hybrid white willow, Kenai birch, laurel willow, littletree willow, low birch, Mackenzie willow, meadow willow, mountain paper birch, Pacific willow, peachleaf willow, pussy willow, Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir, sandbar willow, satiny willow, Scouler willow, shining willow, Sitka willow, tamarack, trembling aspen, violet willow, water birch, white birch, white birch, white spruce, willow, yellow birch
Photos
Adult
Thérèse Arcand
Dion Manastyrski Centre de foresterie du Pacifique, Victoria (Colombie-Britannique) / Pacific Forestry Centre, Victoria, British Columbia
Dion Manastyrski Centre de foresterie du Pacifique, Victoria (Colombie-Britannique) / Pacific Forestry Centre, Victoria, British Columbia