Tag Archives: trees
Hackberry defoliator in north Dallas area
Over the past few weeks I’ve had several emails concerning a small caterpillar infesting hackberry in the Flowermound and Grapevine, TX area especially. After some initial head scratching over fuzzy pictures sent via email, my lab employees went caterpillar hunting yesterday and brought back a good haul of larvae feeding on sugarberry trees, Celtis laevigata. After sending pictures to colleagues, James McDermott of College Station identified the critters as Sciota celtidella, an obscure moth that has been recorded feeding on hackberry, Celtis occidentalis (Alma Solis, Bull. Biolog. Soc. of WA May… Read More →
Tent caterpillars without the tent
Forest tent caterpillars are one of the most widespread and abundant of the tent-making caterpillars. Like their close cousins the eastern tent caterpillars, forest tent caterpillars feed primarily on trees; but unlike their cousins, and the common fall webworm, the forest tent caterpillar doesn’t make an actual tent. Instead the caterpillars aggregate between feedings on a silken mat which they spin on some area of the trunk or on large branches of the host tree. Forest tent caterpillars are relatively easy to recognize. Besides their distinctive aggregation behavior, caterpillars can be… Read More →