Apamea apamiformis | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Lepidoptera |
Superfamily: | Noctuoidea |
Family: | Noctuidae |
Genus: | Apamea |
Species: | A. apamiformis
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Binomial name | |
Apamea apamiformis
Guenée, 1852
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Synonyms | |
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Apamea apamiformis, known by the common names rice worm moth, riceworm, [1] and wild rice worm, [2] is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in North America, including Wisconsin, [3]: 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. [4]
The adult's wingspan is about 39 millimetres (1.5 in). Adults are dimorphic, with a dark form and a light form distinguished by the coloration of the forewing. [5]: 37–38 The reniform spot is dark [5]: 25 with white scales along that spot's concave border (facing the forewing's outer margin). [5]: 38
Adults are on wing from June to August depending on the location. They feed on nectar from common milkweed flowers. [6]
Eggs are laid in the florets of wild rice from late June or early July until early August. [6] 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. [6] By the third instar they begin to consume maturing grain in the flower heads of the wild rice. [6] Starting in September the larvae, now in the sixth or seventh instar, will either bury themselves in soil [6] or will have already bored themselves into the rice stalks, [5] where they overwinter before emerging in mid-spring to feed, moult into the eighth instar and subsequently pupate. [5] [6]
The larva is known as the most serious insect pest of cultivated wild rice in Minnesota, [2] and perhaps the entire Upper Midwest of the United States. [7] The larvae may be mistaken for rice grains during harvesting.