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Project Noah Nature School
Anticarsia gemmatalis
Size: Wingspan 3.3-4 cm. Color *highly* variable. Wings heavily mottled or mostly unmarked with weak stripe and prominent spots. The larvae are extremely variable in coloration and markings throughout the instars. Life Cycle: Larvae feed on pea family plants (Fabaceae), including alfalfa, soybeans, velvetbeans.
Range: Much of North America, but primarily southeastern U.S. Season: September-November The caterpillar overwinters in the southern tip of Florida and moves north during the summer months. A. gemmatalis is an annual problem in the months of June through September in Florida, Georgia and Alabama. Infestations of velvetbean caterpillar are less severe in the western United States. Food: Soybean (Glycine max) is the primary host of the velvetbean caterpillar but it will feed on many other species including peanut, kudzu, velvetbean, horse beans, cotton, cowpea, coffeeweed, black locust, hairy indigo, lespedeza, sesbania, and white sweetclover (Waters and Barfield 1989). Legumes are the preferred host plant of the velvetbean caterpillar.
The velvetbean caterpillar, Anticarsia gemmatalis (Hübner), is the most damaging foliage feeding pest of soybean in Florida and the southeastern states. Infestations of the caterpillar occur in the late summer months and can cause great damage to soybean and other legume crops if not managed. The caterpillar is able to strip fields of soybean foliage in five to seven days (Wilkerson et al. 1986). This migratory species regularly "invades" northward each fall, often in great numbers. (Porch light visitor.)
Spotted on Nov 10, 2012
Submitted on Nov 12, 2012
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