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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] winter moths?

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  • From: mangodance <bmn@iglou.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] winter moths?
  • Date: Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:02:14 -0400

Alan Haigh wrote:
The alleged epidemic of winter moths in the northeast has me a bit perplexed. I've always had a minor problem on some sites where trees with a light flower set will loose the potential very light crop to some kind of flower eating caterpillar. On the same sites trees with a heavy set are unaffected by whatever reduction may be taking place. The problem just isn't big enough to bother with.
I subscribe to a couple of the trades like "Good Fruit Grower" and "Fruit Grower News" the first published in Washington the other Michigan and have never seen mention of this particular pest nor is it mentioned in Cornell's "Pest Management Guidelines for Fruit Production" in the 2007 edition or earlier. Given the unique timing of its emergence it makes no sense that it would be overlooked if it is such a potent threat. Can anyone clear this up for me?

I'm not sure which moth is being referred to as winter moth in the last few posts. Are we discussing the mainly European moth, Operophtera brumata, which invades Canada and the northeast US every so often?

Or...are we referring to the collective group of a good many moths in various families that overwinter as adults which tend to feed on petals and new leaflets of early flowering/leafing trees? Usually when lepidopterists refer to winter moths, they refer to this group of moths, mainly in the family Noctuidae, and typically members of the genera Eupsilia and Lithophane. I do not know of this group really ever having been a true pest as these species are usually legion and fruit and nut set seem unaffected.




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