Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Species Tortricidia flexuosa - Abbreviated Button Slug Moth - Hodges#4654

Abbreviated Button Slug  - Tortricidia flexuosa Which Button Slug? - Tortricidia flexuosa Abbreviated Button Slug - Hodges #4654 (flexuosa) - Tortricidia flexuosa Abbreviated Button Slug - Tortricidia flexuosa Green (larval stage?) insect - Tortricidia flexuosa Moth to porch light  - Tortricidia flexuosa Lépidoptère - Tortricidia flexuosa Lépidoptère - Tortricidia flexuosa
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 Zygaenoidea (Flannel, Slug Caterpillar, Leaf Skeletonizer Moths and kin)
Family Limacodidae (Slug Caterpillar Moths)
Genus Tortricidia
Species flexuosa (Abbreviated Button Slug Moth - Hodges#4654)
Hodges Number
4654
Explanation of Names
Author: Grote, 1880
Food
According to the HOSTS database, caterpillars feed on maple (Acer), birch (Betula), cherry (Prunus), and oak (Quercus).

Dyar reports: "chestnut, oak, hickory, wild cherry" (1)
Remarks
Wagner (2) states that "there are no adult characters (including genitalia) that can be used to reliably separate the adults of the Red-crossed Button Slug from those of the Abbreviated Button Slug." He suggests that the two may in fact be the same species. Adults with more strongly patterned wings, and larvae with the lateral arms of the red dorsal mark extending only halfway down the sides of the body, are considered here to be the Abbreviated Button Slug.
Works Cited
1.The Life-Histories of the New York Slug Caterpillars
Harrison G. Dyar. 1895. Journal of the New York Entomological Society.
2.Caterpillars of Eastern North America
David L. Wagner. 2005. Princeton University Press.