Pero moth
- French common name: Arpenteuse cornue piquetée
- Scientific name: Pero morrisonaria (Hy. Edwards)
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Lepidoptera
- Family: Geometridae
Distribution
- British Columbia
- Newfoundland and Labrador
- Nova Scotia
- Ontario
- Quebec
This species is generally distributed throughout British Columbia south of the Skeena and Fraser drainages; it also occurs east to Newfoundland.
Damage, symptoms and biology
Pero morrisonaria is a relatively uncommon innocuous solitary defoliator.
Mature larva up to 32 mm long. Head, grey with rust markings, frontal triangle black, vertex cleft. Body, elongate, tan to rusty brown; dorsum marked with parallel dark streaks on abdominal segments 3 and 4.
This species overwinters in the pupal stage. Adults emerge in July; larvae are present from July to September and pupation occurs in September.
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 hosts of Pero morrisonaria are Douglas-fir and western hemlock; other hosts include Engelmann spruce, white spruce, Sitka spruce, grand fir, amabilis fir and subalpine fir. Non-coniferous hosts include willow and alder.
Main host(s)
- Amabilis fir
- Balsam fir
- Balsam willow
- Bebb willow
- Black willow
- Douglas-fir
- Engelmann spruce
- European black alder
- Feltleaf willow
- Golden weeping willow
- Grand fir
- Green alder
- Hazel alder
- Heartleaf willow
- Hooker willow
- Hybrid white willow
- Laurel willow
- Littletree willow
- Mackenzie willow
- Meadow willow
- Mountain alder
- Pacific willow
- Peachleaf willow
- Pussy willow
- Red alder
- Red spruce
- Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir
- Sandbar willow
- Satiny willow
- Scouler willow
- Shining willow
- Siberian alder
- Sitka alder
- Sitka spruce
- Sitka willow
- Speckled alder
- Subalpine fir
- Tamarack
- Violet willow
- Western redcedar
- White spruce
- Willow
Secondary host(s)
- Bigleaf maple
- Black spruce
- Douglas maple
- Dwarf birch
- Eastern white pine
- Eastern white-cedar
- Garry oak
- Red maple
- Silver maple
- Western hemlock
- White birch
Photos
Larva
Thérèse Arcand
Robert W. Duncan Centre de foresterie du Pacifique, Victoria (Colombie-Britannique) / Pacific Forestry Centre, Victoria, British Columbia
Robert W. Duncan Centre de foresterie du Pacifique, Victoria (Colombie-Britannique) / Pacific Forestry Centre, Victoria, British Columbia
Robert W. Duncan Centre de foresterie du Pacifique, Victoria (Colombie-Britannique) / Pacific Forestry Centre, Victoria, British Columbia