Malacosoma californicum
Encyclopedia
The Western Tent Caterpillar (Malacosoma californicum) is a moth
of the family Lasiocampidae
. It is found in the Western part of the Nearctic ecozone.
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The wingspan
is ca. 28 mm.
The larvae feed on various decideous trees, such as Oak
and Poplar
.
Moth
A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...
of the family Lasiocampidae
Lasiocampidae
The Lasiocampidae family of moths are also known as eggars, snout moths or lappet moths. There are over 2000 species worldwide, and probably not all have been named or studied....
. It is found in the Western part of the Nearctic ecozone.
Wingspan
The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...
is ca. 28 mm.
The larvae feed on various decideous trees, such as Oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
and Poplar
Poplar
Populus is a genus of 25–35 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar , aspen, and cottonwood....
.
Subspecies
- Malacosoma californicum californicum
- Malacosoma californicum ambisimile (Dyar, 1893)
- Malacosoma californicum pluvialis (Dyar, 1893)
- Malacosoma californicum recenseo Dyar, 1928
- Malacosoma californicum lutescens (Neumoegen & Dyar, 1893)
- Malacosoma californicum fragile (Stretch, 1881)