Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar
Upcoming Events

Photos of insects and people from the 2024 BugGuide gathering in Idaho July 24-27

Moth submissions from National Moth Week 2024

Photos of insects and people from the 2022 BugGuide gathering in New Mexico, July 20-24

Photos of insects and people from the Spring 2021 gathering in Louisiana, April 28-May 2

Photos of insects and people from the 2019 gathering in Louisiana, July 25-27

Photos of insects and people from the 2018 gathering in Virginia, July 27-29


Previous events


TaxonomyBrowse
Info
ImagesLinksBooksData

Species Hemileuca lucina - New England Buck Moth - Hodges#7732

New England Buck Moth - Hemileuca lucina - male Buck Moth? - Hemileuca lucina Caterpillar - Hemileuca lucina Buck Moth, Hemileuca sp. - Hemileuca lucina - male - female Hemileuca lucina - female New England Buck Moth - Hemileuca lucina Hemileuca lucina? - Hemileuca lucina - female New England Buck Moth - Hemileuca lucina
Show images of: caterpillars · adults · both
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
Superfamily Bombycoidea (Silkworm, Sphinx, and Royal Moths)
Family Saturniidae (Giant Silkworm and Royal Moths)
Subfamily Hemileucinae (Buck and Io Moths)
Tribe Hemileucini
Genus Hemileuca
Species lucina (New England Buck Moth - Hodges#7732)
Hodges Number
7732
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Hemileuca lucina Hy. Edwards, 1887
* phylogenetic sequence #225025
Range
Very local in boggy or wet meadows in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts (Covell, 1984).(1)
Season
Adults emerge in late September (Stamp & Bowers, 1990).
Food
Covell states that the larval hosts are broadleaf spiraea and oaks.(1) Stamp & Bowers, however, report that they are specialists on white meadowsweet (Spiraea alba var. latifolia). BugGuide comments indicate that later instar larvae are known to feed on oaks and other plants.
Life Cycle
In September egg masses are deposited around stems of the host. Eggs hatch in May about one week after the host plant buds. Larvae feed gregariously in progressively smaller groups as they get larger individually. By late June the mature larvae tunnel underground to pupate and remain there throughout the summer. Adults emerge in late September to breed and deposit eggs. This species is subject to boom and bust cycles depending largely on the ammount of sunshine after their early-spring emergence. Larvae that devolop faster during good weather avoid the predation of stink bugs and parasitaztion by wasps and flies that appear later in the spring (Stamp & Bowers, 1990).
Remarks
Adults of this species always emerge earlier than Buck Moth (H. maia).

Caterpillars have stinging hairs and can deliver a painful sting if handled.
See Also
H. maia and other Buck Moths.
Print References
Covell Jr., C. V. 1984. A field guide to the moths of eastern North America. p.48, pl.9(6)
Ferguson, D. C. 1971. Moths of America North of Mexico. Fascicle 20.2a: p.121, pl.8.9-11
Stamp, N. E. & M. D. Bowers 1990. Body temperature, behavior, and growth of early-spring caterpillars (Hemileuca lucina: Saturniidae). Jl. Lep. Soc. 44(3): 143-155
Stamp, N. E. & M. D. Bowers 1990. Parasitism of New England buck moth caterpillars (Hemileuca lucina: Saturniidae) by Tachinid flies. Jl. Lep. Soc. 44(3): 199-200
Internet References
Works Cited
1.Field Guide to Moths of Eastern North America
Charles V. Covell, Jr. 2005.