The head is striped with "eight" characters, and the back is full of hair tumors - dancing poison moths

Dancing poison moths are also known as swing caterpillars, apple poison moths, persimmon caterpillars, and the larvae harm the leaves and can eat the leaves within a few weeks. It is mainly distributed in the northeast, northwest, north China and central China, and the common hosts are poplar, willow, plum, walnut, cross, begonia, cherry and so on.

[1] Morphological characteristics

Adult hermaphroditic moths are about 30 mm long, with a wingspan of about 60 mm, yellow-white forewings, and a black-brown "<" shaped stripe in the transverse veins of the middle chamber; the male moth is about 20 mm long, has a wingspan of about 45 mm, the forewings are grayish brown or brown, and there is a black-brown spot in the center of the wing. The larvae are dark in color, with long bristles and vesicle-like enlarged hairs (sails) in the middle of the bristles. The body of the elderly larvae is about 45 mm long, gray-brown, the head is yellow-brown with "eight" gray-black stripes, the dorsal line is grayish yellow, and there are hairs in all body segments of the sub-dorsal line, valve line, and lower valve line.

[2] Occurrence law

One generation a year occurs, with eggs in the stone crevices or on the back of the trunk of the cracks overwintering, the host germinates when it begins to hatch, the hatching larvae multi-group of perched leaf back during the day, eating leaves into holes at night, after being shaken, spitting silk sag and spreading by wind, so it is also called swing caterpillar. After the age of 2 years, it is scattered to feed, roosting under branches, bark cracks or stones under trees during the day, feeding on trees in the evening, and climbing to hidden places at dawn. The male molts 5 times, the female molts 6 times, all molt on the trees at night, the larval stage is about 60 days, the most harmful is from May to June, and in mid-to-late June, it gradually matures, crawls to a hidden place to cocoon and pupate. The pupal period is 10 to 15 days , and the adults feather in large numbers in July. Adults are phototropic, and males are lively and fly between the trees during the day. Females rarely fly, can release sexual hormones to lure male moths to mate, and lay eggs after mating, mostly on branches and dry vulva. Each female can lay 1 to 2 eggs. The overwintering eggs hatch in May of the following year, and the hatching larvae have a cluster hazard habit and disperse the hazard when they grow up. In early and mid-July, the mature larvae pupate in the cracked areas of the trunk, branches, dead leaves, etc. In mid-July, adult moths occur, and the male moths are good at flying, and often rotate and fly in groups during the day. Eggs are mostly laid on the shady side of the branches on the trees, and each female lays 1 to 2 eggs, hundreds of grains per piece, covered with yellow-brown scales at the end of the female moth's abdomen.

[3] Prevention and control methods

1. Artificial scraping of overwintering eggs.

2. Lights trap adult insects.

3. Protect and utilize natural enemies, such as parasitic flies, velvet cocoon peaks, etc.

4. Spray 20% insecticidal urea 7000 times liquid at a young age or use the Qilin Royal Moth for spray control.