Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Rosy maple moths are na­tive to North Amer­ica. The north­ern ex­tent of their range is in south­ern Canada, and they have been recorded in south­ern On­tario, Que­bec, New Brunswick, Nova Sco­tia and Prince Ed­ward Is­land. They range down the East Coast of the United States through most of Florida. Their range ex­tends west to Michi­gan, In­di­ana, Texas, Kansas, and Ne­braska. ("The Green Striped Maple Worm", 1971; Collins, et al., 1996; Co­ti­nis, 2004; Forbes, 1960; Hyche, 2000; Oehlke, 2005; Opler, et al., 2012; VanDyke, 2006; Ward and Her­bert, 1974)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native

Habi­tat

Rosy maple moths in­habit tem­per­ate de­cid­u­ous forests of east­ern North Amer­ica. They are most often as­so­ci­ated with red maples (Acer rubrum), sugar maples (Acer sac­cha­rum), sil­ver maples (Acer sac­cha­r­inum), turkey oaks (Quer­cus lae­vis) and box elder maples (Acer ne­gundo). De­pend­ing on where their host trees are, rosy maple moths have also been found in sub­ur­ban areas. ("The Green Striped Maple Worm", 1971; Co­ti­nis, 2004; Hyche, 2000; Opler, et al., 2012; VanDyke, 2006)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest

• Other Habitat Features
• suburban

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Adult rosy maple moths are ex­tremely vari­able in color. Col­oration in adults can range from un­marked white to bright yel­low with dark pink mac­u­la­tion. The woolly body of rosy maple moths varies in color from bright yel­low, to cream, to white. Their ven­tral side, legs, and an­ten­nae are usu­ally rose pink. Upper wing color is also very vari­able; rang­ing from yel­low to cream, to white with pink at the mar­gins and bases of the wing. The amount of pink mac­u­la­tion on the wings ranges from dom­i­nant to nearly ab­sent. Poly­mor­phism does occur within dif­fer­ent ge­o­graphic re­gions. Unique to Mis­souri, sub­species alba is ei­ther all white or white with very faint pink mac­u­la­tion. (Collins, et al., 1996; Co­ti­nis, 2004)

Sex­ual di­mor­phism is pre­sent in wing shape and span of rosy maple moths. Males have slightly nar­rower wings com­pared to fe­males, and also have less rounded hind­wings. Or­na­men­ta­tion dif­fer­ences are also pre­sent. Males have bipecti­nate an­ten­nae, while fe­males have sim­ple an­ten­nae. Both male and fe­male rosy maple moths have an av­er­age wingspan of 32 to 55 mm. Male forewing length ranges from 17 to 29 mm. The last in­star ranges from 38 mm to 55 mm in length. (Collins, et al., 1996; Co­ti­nis, 2004; VanDyke, 2006)

Rosy maple moth cater­pil­lars, also known as green-striped maple­worms, have dif­fer­ent col­oration de­pend­ing on their stage of de­vel­op­ment. Early stage lar­vae have black heads and bod­ies that are yel­low­ish-cream with faint lon­gi­tu­di­nal green stripes. Fully-grown cater­pil­lars have beige to bright red heads. Their bod­ies are yel­low-green with seven dark green lines run­ning length­wise. The lon­gi­tu­di­nal line col­oration can also range from frosty blue to blue green, or black. Promi­nent black horns are lo­cated dor­sally on the sec­ond tho­racic seg­ment. Two rows of short spines run along each side of the body and the ter­mi­nal ab­dom­i­nal seg­ments have four larger spines. Other moths in the same fam­ily (Sat­urni­idae) have sim­i­lar horned lar­vae, but lack the stun­ning color of rosy maple moths. ("The Green Striped Maple Worm", 1971; "The Green­striped Maple­worm", 2010; Hyche, 2000)

• Other Physical Features
• ectothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry
• polymorphic

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike
• sexes shaped differently
• ornamentation

• Range length

  38 to 55 mm

  1.50 to 2.17 in

• Range wingspan

  32 to 55 mm

  1.26 to 2.17 in

De­vel­op­ment

Fe­male rosy maple moths lay their fer­til­ized eggs 24 hours after mat­ing on the un­der­side of the host leaf and then de­part. After 2 weeks, the lar­vae hatch. Rosy maple moth lar­vae go through five in­star stages. Dur­ing the first three in­stars, the lar­vae live and eat to­gether. Only by the 4th in­star do the lar­vae feed in­de­pen­dently. Dur­ing the early in­stars, the lar­vae have shiny black heads and yel­low bod­ies with black dor­sal lines run­ning ver­ti­cally. The sec­ond body seg­ments of the lar­vae have two yel­low tu­ber­cles, each ter­mi­nat­ing with two setae. Their bod­ies are sparsely cov­ered with short setae. Their legs are black and have yel­low tips. As they pass through the sec­ond and third in­stars, their body color and stripes begin to darken. Be­tween 6 to 11 days after hatch­ing, the brood molts and emerges with deeper col­ors, two long black dor­sal horns near their head, and 6 short but sharp spines on the rest of the seg­ments. About 12 days after hatch­ing, the lar­vae un­dergo an­other molt. This molt leaves the lar­vae rel­a­tively the same in ap­pear­ance. About 1 week later, the lar­vae un­dergo a third molt and emerge with brown heads and var­ied body col­ors. The body col­ors range from dark and light green, black and green, and black and yel­low. Spot­ting also oc­curs in their first seg­ments. Pu­pa­tion oc­curs 10 to 14 days after the third molt. Pupae stages vary in length from 4 to 7 days. (Collins, et al., 1996; Eliot and Soule, 1902; Packard, 1893; VanDyke, 2006)

• Development - Life Cycle
• metamorphosis

Re­pro­duc­tion

Mat­ing be­hav­iors of rosy maple moths are not well un­der­stood. Adults come out in the late af­ter­noon or early evening and mate at night. Fer­til­iza­tion is in­ter­nal. The fol­low­ing dusk, fe­males lay their fer­til­ized eggs. Fe­males lay their eggs on the un­der­side of host tree leaves, such as the leaves of the sugar maple tree (Acer sac­cha­r­inum). Rosy maple moths have a poly­gyan­drous mat­ing sys­tem where fe­males and males mate with dif­fer­ent part­ners through­out the breed­ing sea­son. For each new brood, rosy maple moth fe­males find a dif­fer­ent male. (Opler, et al., 2012; Packard, 1893; VanDyke, 2006)

• Mating System
• polygynandrous (promiscuous)

Sex­u­ally ma­ture adult rosy maple moths emerge from pupae from mid-May through mid-July. Ovipo­si­tion peaks in early July. Rosy maple moths are oviparous, and fe­males lay eggs 24 hours after in­ter­nal fer­til­iza­tion by the male. Fe­males lay 150 to 200 eggs after fer­til­iza­tion and de­posit them in clus­ters of 10 to 30 on the un­der­side of the host leaf. The lar­vae hatch after 2 weeks and live and feed gre­gar­i­ously until the final in­stars. Lar­vae feed until mid-Au­gust at the lat­est. Over­win­ter pu­pa­tion can occur. If this hap­pens, the pupae bur­row into the soil and wait for more fa­vor­able con­di­tions to emerge. Rosy maple moths are sex­u­ally ma­ture at 2 to 9 months. ("The Green­striped Maple­worm", 2010; Jervis, et al., 2005; Packard, 1893; VanDyke, 2006)

Egg-lay­ing oc­curs at dif­fer­ent times in the year de­pend­ing on the re­gion in­hab­ited by the fe­males. In Canada and north­ern re­gions of the United States, fe­males lay one brood from May to Au­gust. In the south­ern states, fe­males lay two broods from April to Sep­tem­ber. In the Deep South in­clud­ing Florida, fe­males lay three broods from March to Oc­to­ber. (VanDyke, 2006)

• Key Reproductive Features
• seasonal breeding
• sexual
• fertilization
  • internal
• broadcast (group) spawning
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Rosy maple moths breed one to three times in a season, depending on the latitude of their host tree.

• Breeding season

  Oviposition peaks in early July, though females living farthest south breed from March to October.

• Range eggs per season

  150 to 200

• Average gestation period

  24 hours

• Range time to independence

  0 to 0 days

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  2 to 9 months

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  2 to 9 months

Parental care is nearly ab­sent in rosy maple moths. Dur­ing the 24 hours after fer­til­iza­tion but be­fore the fe­male lays her eggs, she will yolk and pro­tect her eggs in­side her body. Fe­males lay their eggs on the un­der­side of the leaves of the host tree and leave. Males do noth­ing more than fer­til­ize the eggs. (Packard, 1893; VanDyke, 2006)

• Parental Investment
• female parental care
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Lifes­pan of rosy maple moths ranges from 2 to 9 months in the wild if over­win­ter pu­pa­tion oc­curs. Typ­i­cally, rosy maple moths raised in cap­tiv­ity have a shorter lifes­pan of around 2 to 5 months. In the wild, much of their life is spent over­win­ter­ing in the pupal stage. In cap­tiv­ity, there is no need to over­win­ter due to un­fa­vor­able con­di­tions. (Collins, et al., 1996; Eliot and Soule, 1902; Jervis, et al., 2005; VanDyke, 2006)

• Typical lifespan
  Status: wild

  2 to 9 months

• Typical lifespan
  Status: captivity

  1 to 3 months

Be­hav­ior

Rosy maple moths are noc­tur­nal and mainly soli­tary ex­cept dur­ing mat­ing. Adults enter a stage of tor­por dur­ing the morn­ing and af­ter­noon. They come out in the late af­ter­noon and mate in the late evening. At night, fe­males emit pheromones to at­tract males. Fe­males lay eggs at dusk the day after mat­ing. Adult rosy maple moths usu­ally fly dur­ing the first third of the night. Early rosy maple moth lar­vae feed to­gether but are not con­sid­ered to feed in colonies. The lar­vae be­come soli­tary feed­ers as they de­velop into late-stage cater­pil­lars. Fully-grown cater­pil­lars use the win­ter to pu­pate in shal­low holes un­der­ground. ("The Green Striped Maple Worm", 1971; Fullard and Napoleone, 2001; Opler, et al., 2012)

• Key Behaviors
• arboreal
• flies
• nocturnal
• motile
• hibernation
• daily torpor
• solitary

Home Range

Adult rosy maple moths in­habit a large range since they do not re­quire food, but the exact size of the range is un­known. Lar­vae and cater­pil­lars live on the same tree they hatched on. The lar­vae eat only the leaves and usu­ally stay on the un­der­side of the leaves. ("The Green Striped Maple Worm", 1971; "The Green­striped Maple­worm", 2010; Collins, et al., 1996; Co­ti­nis, 2004; Hyche, 2000; Opler, et al., 2012; Packard, 1893; VanDyke, 2006)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Sen­sory re­cep­tors of rosy maple moths are con­cen­trated in the an­ten­nae, legs and palps. Adults use re­cep­tors to smell pher­e­mones of the op­po­site sex when it is time to mate. Be­cause adult rosy maple moths do not feed, their re­cep­tors are not used for find­ing food and are con­cen­trated for re­pro­duc­tive pur­poses. Rosy maple moths are equipped with com­pound eyes and sim­ple eyes, which allow them to see ul­tra­vi­o­let rays. How­ever, the com­plex­ity of the eye changes with each de­vel­op­men­tal stage. Green-striped maple worms, their cater­pil­lars, only have sim­ple eyes that can dif­fer­en­ti­ate be­tween light and dark. Thus, their vi­sion is poor. Adults and cater­pil­lars both use their many setae to relay tac­tile in­for­ma­tion about their en­vi­ron­ment to the brain. Adults also use their body and an­ten­nae setae to sense the di­rec­tion of the wind while fly­ing. Rosy maple moths lack or­gans to process au­di­tory sounds. As cater­pil­lars and adults, rosy maple moths use their bright col­oration as a warn­ing sign and to seem dis­taste­ful to preda­tors. (Bai­ley and Horn, 2007; Collins, et al., 1996; Fullard and Napoleone, 2001)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• chemical

• Other Communication Modes
• pheromones

• Perception Channels
• visual
• ultraviolet
• tactile
• chemical

Food Habits

Adult rosy maple moths do not feed. The trees that fe­males laid their eggs under be­come the host for the de­vel­op­ing lar­vae. The early lar­vae feed in union, how­ever, lar­vae be­come soli­tary feed­ers in the later stages. Dur­ing the molt­ing process, cater­pil­lars feed on the un­der­sides of the maple tree (Acer) or leaves of oak trees (Quer­cus). The lar­vae and cater­pil­lars are fo­liv­o­rous, and con­sume the en­tire leaf blade. ("The Green Striped Maple Worm", 1971; Opler, et al., 2012; Packard, 1893)

• Primary Diet
• herbivore
  • folivore

• Plant Foods
• leaves

Pre­da­tion

Rosy maple moths lay eggs on the un­der­side of leaves so as to shield them from the eyes of hun­gry birds. Green-striped maple­worms ex­hibit apose­matic col­or­ing in their black spikes and red head. They also have cryp­tic col­oration since they are a bright green; typ­i­cally the color of the leaves they live and feed on. Adult rosy maple moths ex­hibit apose­matic be­hav­ior with their bright yel­low and pink col­or­ing. Among blue­jays (Cyanocitta cristata), black-capped chick­adees (Parus atr­i­capil­lus), and tufted tit­mouses (Parus bi­color), blue­jays are the most suc­cess­ful preda­tors of rosy maple moths. Field stud­ies have shown that rosy maple moths have low ac­cept­abil­ity to birds. The main preda­tors of rosy maple moths and cater­pil­lars are the local birds. ("The Green Striped Maple Worm", 1971; "The Green­striped Maple­worm", 2010; Bai­ley and Horn, 2007; Collins, et al., 1996; Fullard and Napoleone, 2001; Sargeant, 1995)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• aposematic
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • bluejays (Cyanocitta cristata)
  • black-capped chickadees (Parus atricapillus)
  • tufted titmouses (Parus bicolor)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Since adult rosy maple moths do not eat, they not im­pact the ecosys­tem as preda­tors. Lar­vae and cater­pil­lars, how­ever, can be pests when oc­cur­ring in large num­bers on the leaves of maple and oak species, in­clud­ing sugar maples (Acer sac­cha­rum), red maples (Acer rubrum), sil­ver maples (Acer sac­cha­r­inum), elder box maples (Acer ne­gundo), and oak trees (Quer­cus cer­ris). Sev­eral bird species prey on rosy maple moth lar­vae, but bird pre­da­tion is not in­tense enough to slow the pop­u­la­tion buildup. Some par­a­sites have ac­cu­mu­lated in the lar­vae, such as one species of par­a­sitic wasp (Hy­posoter fugi­tivus) and one species of fly (Achaetoneura frenchii). The par­a­sites are not abun­dant enough to af­fect the pop­u­la­tion size of the green-striped maple­worms. ("The Green Striped Maple Worm", 1971; "The Green­striped Maple­worm", 2010; Opler, et al., 2012)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

There are no known pos­i­tive eco­nomic im­pacts of rosy maple moths on hu­mans.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Adult rosy maple moths are not known to have neg­a­tive eco­nomic im­pacts on hu­mans. How­ever, lar­vae are de­fo­lia­tors ca­pa­ble of de­fo­li­at­ing their host trees dur­ing a pop­u­la­tion ex­plo­sion. If two gen­er­a­tions are pro­duced in a sin­gle year, host trees can be com­pletely stripped of leaves twice. Typ­i­cally this does not kill or per­ma­nently dam­age the tree. Nonethe­less, this can de­fo­li­ate acres of trees in a short time pe­riod if ac­com­pa­nied by an­other other hard­wood de­fo­lia­tor, sad­dled promi­nent moths (Het­e­ro­campa gut­tivitta). In ad­di­tion rosy maple moth lar­vae can be a nui­sance to dec­o­ra­tive trees as house pests. ("The Green Striped Maple Worm", 1971; "The Green­striped Maple­worm", 2010; Collins, et al., 1996; Co­ti­nis, 2004; Cov­ell, 1984; Fullard and Napoleone, 2001; Hyche, 2000; Oehlke, 2005; Opler, et al., 2012; VanDyke, 2006)

• Negative Impacts
• household pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Rosy maple moths are not con­sid­ered threat­ened or en­dan­gered. (VanDyke, 2006)

• IUCN Red List

  Not Evaluated

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Ali­cia Damele (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Cather­ine Kent (ed­i­tor), Spe­cial Pro­jects.

Ref­er­ences

U.S. De­part­ment of Agri­cul­ture and For­est Ser­vices. The Green Striped Maple Worm. Leaflet 77. St. Paul, Min­nesota: U.S. Gov­ern­ment Print­ing Of­fice. 1971. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 24, 2012 at http://​na.​fs.​fed.​us/​spfo/​pubs/​fidls/​gs_​mapleworm/​gsm.​htm.

2010. "The Green­striped Maple­worm" (On-line). Nat­ural Re­sources Canada. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 24, 2012 at https://​tidcf.​nrcan.​gc.​ca/​insects/​factsheet/​11683.

Bai­ley, M., D. Horn. 2007. EF­FECT OF TEM­PER­A­TURE VARI­ABLES ON UL­TRA­VI­O­LET TRAP CATCHES OF AC­TIAS LUNA AND DRY­OCAMPA RU­BI­CUNDA (SAT­URNI­IDAE) IN WAYNE NA­TIONAL FOR­EST, OHIO. Jour­nal of the Lep­i­dopter­ists' so­ci­ety, 61/1: 21-27.

Bal­lard, J. 1890. Among the Moths and But­ter­flies. New York: G.P Put­nam and Sons.

Collins, M., P. Tuskes, J. Tut­tle. 1996. The Wild Silk Moths of North Amer­ica. Cor­nell Uni­ver­sity: Cor­nell Uni­ver­sity Press. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 24, 2012 at http://​books.​google.​com/​books?​id=3vqpGATXU2oC&​printsec=frontcover&​source=gbs_​atb#​v=onepage&​q&​f=false.

Co­ti­nis, P. 2004. "Bug­guide" (On-line). Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 24, 2012 at http://​bugguide.​net/​node/​view/​466#​range.

Cov­ell, C. 1984. A Field Guide to the Moths of East­ern North Amer­ica. New York: Houghton Mif­flin.

Eliot, I., C. Soule. 1902. Cater­pil­lars and their moths. New York: The Cen­tury Co.. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 24, 2012 at http://​books.​google.​com/​books?​id=6tE-AAAAYAAJ&​printsec=frontcover&​source=gbs_​ge_​summary_​r&​cad=0#​v=onepage&​q&​f=false.

Forbes, W. 1960. Lep­i­doptera of New York and Neigh­bor­ing States. New York: New York State Col­lege of Agri­cul­ture Ex­per­i­ment Sta­tion.

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Packard, A. 1893. The Life His­to­ries of Cer­tain Moths of the Fam­i­lies Cer­a­to­campidœ, Hemileu­cidœ, etc., with Notes on the Ar­ma­ture of the Larvœ. Pro­ceed­ings of the Amer­i­can Philo­soph­i­cal So­ci­ety, 31/141: 139-192.

Ri­otte, J. 1992. Mis­cel­la­neous Pub­li­ca­tions in the Life Sci­ences. Toronto, Canada: Royal On­tario Mu­seum.

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Sargeant, T. 1995. On the Rel­a­tive Ac­cept­abil­i­ties of Local But­ter­flies and Moths to Local Birds. Jour­nal of the Lep­i­dopter­ists' So­ci­ety, 49(2): 148-162. Ac­cessed March 26, 2012 at http://​peabody.​research.​yale.​edu/​jls/​pdfs/​1990s/​1995/​1995-49(2)148-Sargent.​pdf.

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