Species Proteoteras aesculana - Maple Twig Borer Moth - Hodges#3230

3230

Maple Tip Moth (adult)

Maple Twig Borer (larva)

Proteoteras aesculana Riley, 1881 (1)

Specific epithet from the genus of one of the host plants (Aesculus). (1)

Wingspan 14-17 mm. (1)

Larva length to 10 mm.

Adult - forewing mottled brown or gray and yellowish (often with greenish tint in fresh specimens); irregular blackish crescent-shaped marking begins mid-way along costa and either breaks in subterminal area or terminates in a dark blob before reaching apex; hindwing pale gray with dark veins.

Genitalia:

♀

♂

Larva - body pale white to gray; head dark brown or yellowish-brown; thoracic shield yellowish-brown, often darker laterally and posteriorly; spinules on integument moderately dense and dark.

Nova Scotia to British Columbia and all of United States.

Deciduous woods containing maple; adults are nocturnal and come to light.

Adults emerge in July and August.(2)

Larvae bore in new twigs, petioles, and seeds of various maple species (Acer), buckeye (Aesculus) and sometimes apple. (3)

Black-cresecent Proteoteras (P. crescentana) forewing is paler, and crescent-shaped marking is continuous to apex.

Gray-flanked Proteoteras (P. moffatiana) forewing is more extensively green, and the moth flies only in summer (vs. spring through fall in aesculana).

Riley, C.V., 1881. Descriptions of some new Tortricidae (leaf-rollers). Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis 4: 321. (1)

Moth Photographers Group - species page with photos of live and pinned adults.

BOLD - Barcode of Life Data Systems - species account with photograph of pinned adult and DNA sequence.