''Apamea apamiformis'', known by the common names rice worm moth, riceworm,
[''Apamea apamiformis''.]
Invasive Species List and Scorecards for California. California Invasive Species Advisory Committee. 2010. and wild rice worm,
[Nelson, J. J]
Crop Profile for Wild Rice in Minnesota. NSF Center for Integrated Pest Management & USDA. 2000. is a
moth
Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...
of the family
Noctuidae
The Noctuidae, commonly known as owlet moths, cutworms or armyworms, are a family of moths. They are considered the most controversial family in the superfamily Noctuoidea because many of the clades are constantly changing, along with the other f ...
. It is found in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, including
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
,
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
and eastern
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, with imperiled or critically imperiled populations in
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
and
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
, respectively, and a vulnerable population in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
.
Description
The adult's
wingspan
The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...
is about . Adults are dimorphic, with a dark form and a light form distinguished by the coloration of the forewing.
The
reniform spot is dark
with white scales along that spot's concave border (facing the forewing's outer margin).
Life cycle and behavior
Adults are on wing from June to August depending on the location. They feed on nectar from
common milkweed flowers.
Eggs are laid in the
florets
This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to botany and plants in general. Terms of plant morphology are included here as well as at the more specific Glossary of plant morphology and Glossary o ...
of
wild rice
Wild rice, also called manoomin, Canada rice, Indian rice, or water oats, is any of four species of grasses that form the genus ''Zizania'', and the grain that can be harvested from them. The grain was historically gathered and eaten in both ...
from late June or early July until early August.
The eggs hatch after eight or nine days and the
larvae
A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle.
The ...
eat the ovary of their floret before
ballooning Ballooning may refer to:
* Hot air ballooning
* Balloon (aeronautics)
* Ballooning (spider)
* Ballooning degeneration, a disease
* Memory ballooning
See also
* Balloon (disambiguation)
A balloon is a flexible container for (partially or fully) co ...
away on self-spun silk threads.
By the third
instar
An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or ass ...
they begin to consume maturing grain in the flower heads of the wild rice.
Starting in September the larvae, now in the sixth or seventh instar, will either bury themselves in soil
or will have already bored themselves into the rice stalks,
where they overwinter before emerging in mid-spring to feed, moult into the eighth instar and subsequently pupate.
Economic importance
The larva is known as the most serious insect pest of cultivated wild rice in Minnesota,
[ and perhaps the entire ]Upper Midwest
The Upper Midwest is a region in the northern portion of the U.S. Census Bureau's Midwestern United States. It is largely a sub-region of the Midwest. Although the exact boundaries are not uniformly agreed-upon, the region is defined as referring ...
of the United States.[Oelke, E. A. 1993]
Wild rice: Domestication of a native North American genus.
p. 235-43. ''In:'' Janick, J. and J. E. Simon (eds.), ''New Crops''. Wiley, New York. Accessed 30 July 2022. The larvae may be mistaken for rice grains during harvesting.
References
External links
*
Digital Guide to Moth Identification, North American Moth Photographers Group at the Mississippi Entomological Museum at Mississippi State UniversityBug Guide Entry for ''Apamea apamiformis''
Further reading
*MacKay, M. R. and E. W. Rockburne. (1958). Notes on life-history and larval description of ''Apamea apamiformis'' (Guenée), a pest of wild rice (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). ''The Canadian Entomologist'' 90(10), 579-82.
Apamea (moth)
Agricultural pest insects
Moths of North America
Moths described in 1852
Taxa named by Achille Guenée
{{Apamea-stub