Apamea apamiformis
| Apamea apamiformis | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Superfamily: | Noctuoidea |
| Family: | Noctuidae |
| Genus: | Apamea |
| Species: | A. apamiformis
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| Binomial name | |
| Apamea apamiformis Guenée, 1852
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| Synonyms | |
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Apamea apamiformis, known by the common names rice worm moth, riceworm,[1] and wild rice worm,[2] is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in North America, including Wisconsin,[3]: 23 New York, Minnesota and eastern Canada, with imperiled or critically imperiled populations in Maryland and Indiana, respectively, and a vulnerable population in New Jersey.[4]
Description
[edit | edit source]The adult's wingspan is about 39 millimetres (1.5 in). Adults are dimorphic, with a dark form and a light form distinguished by the coloration of the forewing.[5]: 37–38 The reniform spot is dark[5]: 25 with white scales along that spot's concave border (facing the forewing's outer margin).[5]: 38
Life cycle and behavior
[edit | edit source]Adults are on wing from June to August depending on the location. They feed on nectar from common milkweed flowers.[6]
Eggs are laid in the florets of wild rice from late June or early July until early August.[6] The eggs hatch after eight or nine days and the larvae eat the ovary of their floret before ballooning away on self-spun silk threads.[6] By the third instar they begin to consume maturing grain in the flower heads of the wild rice.[6] Starting in September the larvae, now in the sixth or seventh instar, will either bury themselves in soil[6] or will have already bored themselves into the rice stalks,[5] where they overwinter before emerging in mid-spring to feed, moult into the eighth instar and subsequently pupate.[5][6]
Economic importance
[edit | edit source]The larva is known as the most serious insect pest of cultivated wild rice in Minnesota,[2] and perhaps the entire Upper Midwest of the United States.[7] The larvae may be mistaken for rice grains during harvesting.
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Apamea apamiformis. Archived 2016-03-05 at the Wayback Machine Invasive Species List and Scorecards for California. California Invasive Species Advisory Committee. 2010.
- ^ a b Nelson, J. J. Insect Pests: Wild Rice Worm. Archived January 27, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Crop Profile for Wild Rice in Minnesota. NSF Center for Integrated Pest Management & USDA. 2000.
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- ^ Oelke, E. A. 1993. Wild rice: Domestication of a native North American genus. p. 235-43. In: Janick, J. and J. E. Simon (eds.), New Crops. Wiley, New York. Accessed 30 July 2022.
External links
[edit | edit source]- Error creating thumbnail: File missing Media related to Lua error in Module:Commons_link at line 62: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). at Wikimedia Commons
- Digital Guide to Moth Identification, North American Moth Photographers Group at the Mississippi Entomological Museum at Mississippi State University
- Bug Guide Entry for Apamea apamiformis
Further reading
[edit | edit source]- MacKay, M. R. and E. W. Rockburne. (1958). Notes on life-history and larval description of Apamea apamiformis (Guenée), a pest of wild rice (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). The Canadian Entomologist 90(10), 579-82. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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