Tufted Bird-dropping Moth

Tufted Bird-dropping Moth

Cerma cerintha
OWLET MOTH FAMILY (Noctuidae)

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The Tufted Bird-dropping Moths has a wingspan of about 1.25 inches. It has dark dorsal tufts on the abdomen. The forewing is white with brown markings on the outer margin and the basal section. Pale greenish-blue scallops form a fragmented median band. The reniform spot is white with blue-gray filling. At rest, it resembles a bird-dropping. The mature larva is about 1.25 inches long. It is elongate, shiny green and red with sparse, long dark hairs. Dorsally it is red with a white stripe. The sides are green. Abdominal segment 8 has a pair of dark warts.

 

The Tufted Bird-dropping Moth may be common, but it has only been seen once at Fontenelle Forest Nature Center in late April.

 

The preferred larval foodplant is cherry, but it will also eat apple, hawthorn and plum leaves. The mature caterpillar tunnels into soft wood to pupate and seals the entrance with silk and wood chips. It spends the winter as a pupa.

 

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