Species Caripeta aequaliaria - Red Girdle - Hodges#6865

6865

Indian blanket moth (1)

Caripeta aequaliaria Grote(2), 1883

Wingspan 34-42 mm.

Forewing length 17-20 mm. (1)

Larva length to 42 mm.

Adult - forewing reddish-brown with jagged AM and PM lines, pale yellowish discal spot, and prominent orange arrow-shaped streaks in subterminal area. Hindwing whitish basally with diffuse pale yellow streaks radiating distally.

Larva - two distinct morphs. More common morph ranges from dark brown to pale gray; head pale gray with dark markings on each lobe; body elongate with dorsum of each abdominal segment marked with pair of dark spots in anterior third (not distinct in light-colored variant) and pair of dark D-shaped markings near posterior margin; less common morph rusty brown with broken middorsal creamy yellow stripe and prominent yellow lateral spots (description by Canadian Forest Service).

British Columbia to California(3), east to Texas, north to Alberta.

Coastal and mountain coniferous forests.

Adults usually fly in September and October in the north; earlier southward.

Larvae present from June to September.

Larvae feed mainly on Douglas-fir, Lodgepole Pine, Ponderosa Pine; other hosts include Western White Pine, Western Hemlock.

One generation per year; overwinters as an egg.

Douglas Ferguson considered Caripeta aequaliaria and Caripeta interalbicans the same species. (4)

Caripeta interalbicans is very similar and may be the same species; it occurs in the southwest (Arizona and California)

Northern Pine Looper (Caripeta piniata) has deeply indented AM line, smaller streaks in subterminal area of forewing, more prominent streaks on hindwing, and occurs from Saskatchewan eastward (compare images of both species)

Grote, A.R. 1883. On the moths collected by Prof. Snow in New Mexico. Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci. 8: 56.

Powell, J. A. & P. A. Opler 2009. Moths of Western North America. University of California Press. plate 30, fig. 7, p. 217. (1)

Moth Photographers Group

E.H. Strickland Museum

pinned adult image (CBIF)

pinned adult image plus description, flight season, food plants (Jeff Miller, Macromoths of Northwest Forests and Woodlands; USGS)

distribution in Canada list of provinces (CBIF)