Besma quercivoraria

Oak besma
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Geometridae
Tribe: Ourapterygini
Genus: Besma
Species: B. quercivoraria
Binomial name
Besma quercivoraria
(Guenée, 1857)
Synonyms
  • Metanema quercivoraria Guenée, 1857
  • Besma aeliaria (Walker, 1860)
  • Besma textrinaria (Grote & Robinson, 1867)
  • Besma trilinearia (Packard, 1876)
  • Besma incongruaria (Hulst, 1887)

Besma quercivoraria, the oak besma, is a moth of the family Geometridae. It is found across southern Canada (from Newfoundland to British Columbia) and all of the United States except California.

Adults are sexually dimorphic.

The wingspan is 27–41 mm. Adults are on wing from April to September in the south, from May to August in Ontario and from late May to July in Alberta. There are two generations per year.

The larvae feed on the leaves of oak, elm, poplar, willow, Picea glauca, and mostly Betula papyrifera in southern Canada.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, January 31, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.