The blue spruce, also commonly known as green spruce, Colorado spruce, or Colorado blue spruce, is a species of spruce tree native to North America in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. It is noted for its blue-green colored needles, and has therefore been widely introduced elsewhere and used as an ornamental tree in many places far beyond its native range.
The brown-tail moth is a moth of the family Erebidae. It is native to Europe, neighboring countries in Asia, and the north coast of Africa. Descriptions of outbreaks, i.e., large population increases of several years duration, have been reported as far back as the 1500s. The life cycle of the moth is atypical, in that it spends approximately nine months as larvae (caterpillars), leaving about one month each for pupae, imagos and eggs. Larvae (caterpillars) are covered in hairs. Two red spots on the back, toward the tail, distinguish these species from other similarly hairy moth larvae. The winged adults have white wings and a hairy white body with a tuft of brown hair at the tip of the abdomen. Females lay one egg cluster, usually on the underside of a leaf of a host plant. The species is polyphagous, meaning that it feeds on many different species of trees, including pear, apple, maple and oak.
Lophocampa caryae, the hickory tiger moth, hickory tussock moth, or hickory halisidota, is a moth in the family Erebidae and the tribe Arctiini, the tiger moths. The species is widely distributed in the eastern half of North America. In other species in this family, the caterpillars acquire chemical defenses from their host plants, so they are potentially toxic or unpalatable, but despite anecdotal claims that this species may also be venomous, no venom has yet been isolated or identified; adverse reactions are characterized as contact dermatitis.
Malacosoma californicum, the western tent caterpillar, is a moth of the family Lasiocampidae. It is a tent caterpillar. The Western Tent Caterpillar is found in southern Canada, the western United States, and parts of northern Mexico. There are currently six recognized subspecies of M. californicum. Western tent caterpillars are gregarious and will spend a large portion of their time with other caterpillars in silken tents constructed during their larval stage.
Lophocampa is a genus of moths in the family Erebidae. The genus was erected by Thaddeus William Harris in 1841. It contains around 75 species.
Mimoschinia is a genus of moths of the family Crambidae. It contains only one species, Mimoschinia rufofascialis, the rufous-banded pyralid moth or barberpole caterpillar, which is found in the Caribbean, from Alberta to British Columbia, south to Texas and California and in Mexico.
Lophocampa ingens is a moth of the family Erebidae. It was described by Henry Edwards in 1881. It is found in the southern Rocky Mountains and in Mexico.
Lophocampa maculata, the Yellow-spotted tussock moth, mottled tiger or spotted halisidota, is a moth of the family Erebidae and the tribe Arctiini, the tiger moths. The species was first described by Thaddeus William Harris in 1841. It is found across Canada, the western parts of the United States, south in the Appalachians to South Carolina and Kentucky. They are also found in Southeastern Alaska.
Callophrys sheridanii, the Sheridan's hairstreak and Sheridan's green hairstreak, is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It is found in North America along the south coast of British Columbia and parts of Nevada, Arizona, Saskatchewan, North Dakota, and New Mexico. In 2009, this species was adopted as the U.S. state butterfly for Wyoming.
Orgyia pseudotsugata, the Douglas-fir tussock moth, is a moth of the subfamily Lymantriinae first described by James Halliday McDunnough in 1921. It is found in western North America. Its population periodically irrupts in cyclical outbreaks. The caterpillars feed on the needles of Douglas fir, true fir, and spruce in summer, and moths are on the wing from July or August to November.
Ennomos magnaria, the maple spanworm moth, notched wing moth, notched-wing geometer or notch-wing moth, is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Achille Guenée in 1858. It is found from coast to coast in southern Canada and the northern United States, south in the east to Florida and Louisiana and in the west to California.
Archips cerasivorana, the ugly-nest caterpillar moth, is a species of moth of the family Tortricidae. The caterpillars of this species are known to create nests by tying the leaves of their host plant together. Within the nests, they live and feed off the leaves that have been tied together. The larvae are brownish or greenish yellow with a shiny dark brown head. Larvae can be found from May to July. The species overwinters as an egg, and pupation takes place within the nest. Caterpillars are seen to follow one another in trails, a behavior prompted by the release of signaling pheromones from their spinnerets.
Euphilotes ancilla, the Rocky Mountain dotted blue, is a species of butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found from Washington south to California and southern Alberta and Saskatchewan south through the Rockies and high plains to Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and northwestern New Mexico. The species was first described by William Barnes and James Halliday McDunnough in 1918.
Eupithecia nevadata is a moth in the family Geometridae first described by Alpheus Spring Packard in 1871. It is found in western North America.
Eupinivora ponderosae is a species of moth of the family Tortricidae. It is found in the montane regions of the western United States from Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado, south to Arizona and New Mexico and east to Texas. The habitat consists of conifer-dominated areas at elevations ranging from 1,700 to 2,700 meters.
Spilosoma vagans, the wandering diacrisia or wandering tiger moth, is a moth in the family Erebidae. It was described by Jean Baptiste Boisduval in 1852. It is found in western North America, from southern California, southern Utah and central Colorado north to southern British Columbia and south-western Alberta. The habitat consists of drier forests, including open ponderosa pine forests and mixed hardwood-conifer forests.
Comadia bertholdi, the lupine borer moth, is a moth in the family Cossidae. It is found in the United States, where it has been recorded from Washington, Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, California, Nevada and New Mexico.
Choristoneura freemani, the western spruce budworm, is a species of moth of the family Tortricidae. It is the most destructive defoliator of coniferous forests in western North America.
Hemileuca nuttalli, or Nuttall's sheep moth, is a moth in the family Saturniidae. It is found from south-eastern British Columbia to eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, north-eastern California, Idaho, Nevada, northern Arizona, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and north-western New Mexico. The species was first described by Ferdinand Heinrich Hermann Strecker in 1875 under the name Pseudohazis nuttalli.
