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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Butterflies and Moths (Lepidoptera) » Geometrid and Swallowtail Moths (Geometroidea) » Geometrid Moths (Geometridae) » Ennominae » Alsophilini » Alsophila » Fall Cankerworm - Hodges#6258 (Alsophila pometaria)
Photo#605853
unknown insect laying eggs on a tree. - Alsophila pometaria - female
Copyright © 2012 mkettler

unknown insect laying eggs on a tree. - Alsophila pometaria - Female
Ellicott city, howard County, Maryland, USA
January 6, 2012
Size: aprox 1/2-3/4" long
unknown insect (6 legged) laying eggs on a maple tree trunk at night. Heteroptera of some sort? The body is flexible, not hard like a stink bug as earlier she was sitting quite still and had bent her body (moving head away from the tree) to at its widest point. Given the sharp bend, at first I thought this insect was dead and had been squashed, but later I came back to take this shot and she was moving around and no longer bent.

This tree had recently been planted, but the tree farm it came from is in howard county as well.
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Contributed by mkettler on 6 January, 2012 - 9:54pm
Last updated 13 February, 2012 - 7:16pm

Moved
Moved from Moths.
… john and jane balaban, 13 February, 2012 - 7:16pm login or register to post comments

Geometrid
Based on the location and date, this is almost certainly a Fall Cankerwom or a Bruce's Spanworm. Not sure of any tricks for telling the females apart though...
… Paul Dennehy, 10 January, 2012 - 8:37am login or register to post comments

 
eggs give it away.
Based on the egg cluster, and pictures of the eggs and information I can find elsewhere it is a fall cankerworm. The eggs of the spannerworm are laid singly, green when laid then turn orange.

The cankerworm lays in clusters of brown eggs, just like in my picture.
… mkettler, 11 January, 2012 - 6:15pm login or register to post comments

Moved
Moved from ID Request.
… John R. Maxwell, 7 January, 2012 - 9:01am login or register to post comments

Wingless female moth
Maybe something close to this one:



That's just one possibility, though, so wait to hear from the moth experts.

Welcome to BugGuide!
… Ken Wolgemuth, 6 January, 2012 - 10:05pm login or register to post comments

 
right family for sure...
when she was bent her posture looked very much like:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/484333/bgimage
… mkettler, 6 January, 2012 - 10:18pm login or register to post comments

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