Page 624 - The Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species From Around the World

MOTH CATERPILLARS

FAMILY Noctuidae
DISTRIBUTION North Africa, Europe (except northern Scandinavia), east across
southern Russia; the Middle East to Afghanistan, northern India,

and China to the Paci c coast
HABITAT Many, but particularly gardens and other cultivated land, rough
ground with lush herbaceous vegetation, and saltmarsh edges
HOST PLANTS Many herbaceous and woody plants, but often Lamb’s-quarters
(Chenopodium album) and other Chenopodiaceae; also willowherb
(Epilobium spp.), tobacco (Nicotiana spp.), Tomato (Solanum
lycopersicum), tamarisk (Tamarix spp.), and elm (Ulmus spp.)
NOTE Leaf-feeding caterpillar that also eats tomatoes
CONSERVATION STATUS Not assessed, but very common

ADULT WINGSPAN

1⅜–1¾ in (35–45 mm)

CATERPILLAR LENGTH
1 ⁄ –1¾ in (40–45 mm)
LACANOBIA OLERACEA
BRIGHT-LINE BROWN-EYE
622
(LINNAEUS, 1758)

The Bright-line Brown-eye caterpillar hatches from a yellowish-
green egg and, throughout its development, feeds at night,
usually on the foliage of its food plant, hiding low down by
day. The pupa is formed in a fragile cell in the ground, and this
stage overwinters. There are one or two generations per year
depending on climate. The adults, also known as Tomato Moths,
first appear in May, and caterpillars can be found from June
until late fall.

The caterpillar is most abundant on rich soils where its favored
host plants proliferate. It is well known to gardeners and
horticulturalists as a pest on tomatoes—as well as eating the
leaves it destroys the fruit by burrowing into it. The closely
The Bright-line Brown-eye caterpillar is smooth related Dog’s-tooth caterpillar (Lacanobia suasa) is very similar
and cylindrical and can be light green, darker but its two outer dorsal stripes are formed into oblique, rather
green, brown, or pinkish brown in color. It is
densely peppered with tiny, white spots and than curved, dashes and may be extended to the middle line to
more thinly scattered black, white-ringed spots.
On the back, it sometimes has three di use dark form a W on each segment. Green forms may lack this, making
stripes, the outer two broken into slightly curved the two species indistinguishable from each other.
dashes. There is a bright yellow stripe along each
side, often edged above by a di use dark stripe.

Actual size