Species Campaea perlata - Pale Beauty - Hodges#6796

6796

Fringed Looper (larva)

Campaea perlata – (Guenée, [1858])

First described in 1858 by Achille Guenée as Metrocampa perlata

perlata is probably from post-classical Latin for "pearly" (the original description commented on its similarity to margaritata, whose name is based on the classical Latin word for "pearl" and no doubt means the same thing).

The classical Latin word meaning "carried through" is highly unlikely as the source for this name, although it's the only "perlata" in most Latin dictionaries.

common to abundant

Wingspan 28-51 mm; female much larger than male. (1)

Adult: wings and body pale greenish to grayish-white, often yellowish when faded; forewing antemedial and postmedial lines nearly straight, faint, darker grayish accented with white; postmedial line continues onto hindwing

[description by Charles Covell]

Larva: body with short hair-like fringes along ventral margin; when a larva is apresssed close to a branch, the fringes help break the outline of the body and make the larva nearly invisible

Alaska across Canada to Nova Scotia; south to central California, Arizona and Colorado; in the eastern U. S. south to North Carolina.(2)

coniferous, mixed, and deciduous forests and shrubby areas; adults are nocturnal and come to light, but in the arctic where summer nights are short or absent, adults fly during the day

Bivoltine on Block Island, RI, flying primarily in June and September.(3)

larvae have been reported to feed on leaves of 65 species of coniferous and deciduous trees and shrubs, including alder, ash, basswood, beech, birch, blueberry, Buffaloberry (Shepherdia canadensis), cherry, fir, elm, hemlock, maple, oak, pine, poplar, rose, spruce, tamarack, willow [list taken from Handfield, 1999]

Two generations per year in the south; one generation in the far north; overwinters as a third-instar or fourth-instar larva, likely exposed on bark and branches

Moth Photographers Group — photos of living and pinned adults.

Histoire naturelle des insectes; spécies général des lépidoptères, v.7, p.128 (n.197) — Guenée's original description of the species.