Species Nemoria mimosaria - White-Fringed Emerald - Hodges#7048

7048

Flanged Looper

Nemoria mimosaria (Guenée, [1858])

Aplodes mimosaria Guenée, [1858]

Iodis tractaria Walker, 1861

Hipparchiscus venustus Walsh, 1864

Aplodes latiaria Packard, 1873

Aplodes coniferaria Packard, 1884

* phylogenetic sequence # 207150

Forewing length: ♂ 10.5-14 mm, ♀ 12-14 mm. (1)

Larva to 15 mm. (2)

Adult: A rather small, bright green geometrid with two white transverse lines. N. unitaria has the white hindwing PM line closer to the wing base (about halfway to the margin), while mimosaria has the line more than halfway from the wing base to the outer margin; the PM and AM are also often connected forming a U-shaped white line on the hindwing rather than two discrete lines which meet the anal margin. The other two Alberta Nemoria, rubrifrontaria and darwiniata, have more than one pink-ringed abdominal spot, mimosaria has at most one spot, never encircled in pink.

Larva: - see photo (p.94) in Maier et al. in Print References.

Nova Scotia to southeastern Alberta, south to Virginia, Illinois and east Texas (E.H Strickland Museum). (3)

Most records of adults from May through July. (3)

Mature larva present August through October. (2)

Many known larval hosts. Frequently found on oaks, white birch and balsam fir but also hemlock, tamarack, willow, spruce, ash, cherry, hawthorn, maple, beech and probably other shrubs and forest trees. (1), (2), (4)

Overwinters as pupa in soil or debris. (2)

Synchlora aerata is similar, but the transverse lines are scalloped rather than smooth, and the abdomen has a white dorsal line, not round spots as in Nemoria.

Ferguson, D.C. 1969. A revision of the moths of the subfamily Geometrinae of America north of Mexico (Insecta, Lepidoptera). Peabody Museum Nat. Hist. Bulletin 29: 113-115, pl.46, f.6-8 (1)

Ferguson, D.C. 1985. Moths of America North of Mexico. Fascicle 18.1: p.66; pl.3.25-29 (5)

Maier, C.T., C.R. Lemmon, J.M. Fengler, D.F. Schweitzer, R.C. Reardon 2011. Caterpillars on the Foliage of Conifers in the Northeastern United States (Revised). USDA FHTET-2011-07: 1-153 (20Mb PDF) (2)

Wagner, D.L., V. Giles, R.C. Reardon, M.L. McManus 1998. Caterpillars of Eastern Forests. USDA Forest Service FHTET-96-34: p.83 (Google Book) (4)

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