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
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)
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