dogwood borer

(Synanthedon scitula)

 

No Image Available

  Hodges #

2549

 
 
Conservation Status
  IUCN Red List

not listed

     
  NatureServe

NNR - Unranked

     
  Minnesota

not listed

     
           
 
Description
 
 

Dogwood borer is a small clearwing moth. It occurs in southeast Canada and in the United States east of the Mississippi River. It is less common in Minnesota where it is at the western edge of its range. It is a major pest of pecan and flowering dogwood.

Adults look convincingly like a wasp. They are 5 16 to ½ long and have a wingspan of 9 16 to ¾. They are mostly black or metallic bluish-black with yellow markings.

The thorax is dark with a yellow longitudinal line on each side. The abdomen is dark with a thin yellow band on the second segment and a thicker one on the fourth segment. On the female, the band on the fourth segment is much thicker. A rounded tuft of long hairs (anal tuft) flares outward from the last abdominal segment. The anal tuft is mostly black with a few to many yellow hairs on both lateral margins and sometimes also in the middle.

The forewings are 3 16 to long, narrow, and rounded at the tip. They are longer and much narrower than the hindwings. They are mostly free of scales (clear) with a black border, a black bar through the discal area, a yellow patch near the tip, and dark scales along the veins. The leading (costal) margin is black with narrow yellow streaks. The hindwing is entirely clear except for dark scales along the veins. It has a dark fringe of short hairs. As with most moths, the hindwings and forewings are held in contact by bristles (a frenulum) and scales (a retinaculum). Unlike most moths, they are also held together by a rolled under inner margin of the forewing coupling with a rolled up costal margin of the hindwing.

 
     
 

Size

 
 

Total length: 5 16 to ½

Wingspan: 9 16 to ¾

 
     
 

Similar Species

 
     
     
 
Habitat
 
 

Deciduous woods, parks, yards

 
     
 
Biology
 
 

Season

 
 

Probably just one generation per year: May to September in Minnesota

 
     
 

Behavior

 
 

Adults are active during the day.

 
     
 

Life Cycle

 
 

The female lays single pale yellow eggs in the wound of a tree. She lays up to 100 or more eggs throughout the year. When an egg hatches in eight or nine days, the larva burrows under the bark. The larva will pass through seven stages (instars). In the fall it creates a cocoon-like shelter (hibernaculum) within the feeding gallery and overwinters. It resumes feeding in the spring, spins a cocoon, and emerges as an adult about 25 days later.

 
     
 

Larva Hosts

 
 

A wide variety of deciduous trees, including dogwood, black cherry, American plum, Canadian plum, pecan, hickory, oak, beech, birch, elm, mountain-ash, viburnum, willow, apple, blueberry, pine, willow, hazel, and ninebark.

 
     
 

Adult Food

 
 

 

 
     
 
Distribution
 
 

Distribution Map

 

Sources

21, 30, 75.

 
  7/10/2019      
         
 

Occurrence

 
 

Uncommon

 
         
 
Taxonomy
 
 

Order

Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths)  
 

Superfamily

Sesioidea (carpenter, leopard, goat, and allied moths)  
 

Family

Sesiidae (clearwing moths)  
 

Subfamily

Sesiinae  
 

Tribe

Synanthedonini  
 

Genus

Synanthedon  
       
 

Synonyms

 
 

Aegeria scitula

Sesia scitula

Trichilium scitula

 
       
 

Common Names

 
 

dogwood borer

dogwood borer moth

pecan borer

pecan clearwing moth

 
       

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary

Costal margin

The leading edge of the forewing of insects.

 

Frenulum

A spine (male) or multiple spines (female) at the base of the costal edge of the hindwing of many moths that couples with the retinaculum on the forewing to keep the wings in contact which each other.

 

Instar

The developmental stage of arthropods between each molt; in insects, the developmental stage of the larvae or nymph.

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
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Created: 12/14/2018

Last Updated:

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