Apamea apamiformis

{{Speciesbox

| image = Apamea apamiformis.JPG

| taxon = Apamea apamiformis

| authority = Guenée, 1852

| synonyms ={{Specieslist

|Xylophasia apamiformis|

|Hadena contenta|

}}

Apamea apamiformis, known by the common names rice worm moth, riceworm,[http://ice.ucdavis.edu/invasives/species/apamea-apamiformis Apamea apamiformis.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305042840/http://ice.ucdavis.edu/invasives/species/apamea-apamiformis |date=2016-03-05 }} Invasive Species List and Scorecards for California. California Invasive Species Advisory Committee. 2010. and wild rice worm,Nelson, J. J. [http://www.ipmcenters.org/cropprofiles/docs/mnwildrice.html Insect Pests: Wild Rice Worm.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120127212840/http://www.ipmcenters.org/cropprofiles/docs/mnwildrice.html |date=January 27, 2012 }} Crop Profile for Wild Rice in Minnesota. NSF Center for Integrated Pest Management & USDA. 2000. is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in North America, including Wisconsin,{{cite journal |title=Checklist of Wisconsin Moths |last1=Ferge |first1=Leslie A. |last2=Balogh |first2=George J. |last3=Johnson |first3=Kyle E. |date=June 2018 |journal=Wisconsin Entomological Society Special Publication No. 6 |url=https://www.wisentsoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/WI-Moth-Checklist-June-2018.pdf |access-date=30 July 2022}}{{rp|23}} New York, Minnesota and eastern Canada, with imperiled or critically imperiled populations in Maryland and Indiana, respectively, and a vulnerable population in New Jersey.{{cite web |website=NatureServe Network Biodiversity Location Data accessed through NatureServe Explorer |title=Apamea apamiformis |last=Schweitzer |first=Dale F. |url=https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.118756/Apamea_apamiformis |date=30 September 2022 |access-date=27 October 2022 |publisher=NatureServe |location=Arlington, Virginia}}

Description

The adult's wingspan is about {{convert|39|mm|in}}. Adults are dimorphic, with a dark form and a light form distinguished by the coloration of the forewing.{{cite book |last1=Mikkola |first1=Kauri |last2=Lafontaine |first2=J. Donald |last3=Gill |first3=Jocelyn D. |title=The Moths of North America |chapter=Fascicle 26.9, Noctuidea, Noctuidae (part): Xyleninae (part): Apameini (part—Apamea group of genera |year=2009 |editor-last1=Hodges |editor-first1=Ronald W. |editor-last2=Brown |editor-first2=Richard L. |editor-last3=Davis |editor-first3=Donald R. |editor-last4=Lafontaine |editor-first4=J. Donald |editor-last5=Powell |editor-first5=Jerry A. |editor-last6=Solis |editor-first6=M. Alma |publisher=The Wedge Entomological Research Foundation |location=Washington |chapter-url=https://images.peabody.yale.edu/mona/26-9-ocr.pdf |isbn=978-0-933003-14-9 |access-date=30 July 2022}}{{rp|37-38}} The reniform spot is dark{{rp|25}} with white scales along that spot's concave border (facing the forewing's outer margin).{{rp|38}}

Life cycle and behavior

Adults are on wing from June to August depending on the location. They feed on nectar from common milkweed flowers.{{cite web |last1=Peterson |first1=A.G. |last2=Noetzel |first2=D.M. |last3=Sargent |first3=J.E. |last4=Hanson |first4=P.E. |last5=Johnson |first5=C.B. |last6=Soemawinata |first6=A.T. |title=Insects of Wild Rice in Minnesota |year=1981 |publisher=University of Minnesota |location=St. Paul, Minnesota |hdl=11299/141135 |id=R157 |url=https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/141135 |access-date=30 July 2022}}

Eggs are laid in the florets of wild rice from late June or early July until early August. The eggs hatch after eight or nine days and the larvae eat the ovary of their floret before ballooning away on self-spun silk threads. By the third instar 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 of the United States.Oelke, E. A. 1993. [http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1993/v2-235.html 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

{{Commons category-inline|Apamea apamiformis}}
[http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/species.php?hodges=9343 Digital Guide to Moth Identification, North American Moth Photographers Group at the Mississippi Entomological Museum at Mississippi State University]
[http://bugguide.net/node/view/45123 Bug Guide Entry for Apamea apamiformis]