An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus Quercus of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere; it includes some 500 species, both deciduous and evergreen. Fossil oaks date back to the Middle Eocene. Molecular phylogeny shows that the genus is divided into Old World and New World clades, but many oak species hybridise freely, making the genus's history difficult to resolve.
Caterpillars are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera.
Lepidoptera or lepidopterans is an order of winged insects that includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organisms, making it the second largest insect order with 126 families and 46 superfamilies. and one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world.
Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is paraphyletic with respect to butterflies and neither subordinate taxon is used in modern classifications. Moths make up the vast majority of the order. There are approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of which have yet to be described. Most species of moth are nocturnal, although there are also crepuscular and diurnal species.
Quercus rubra, the northern red oak, is an oak tree in the red oak group. It is a native of North America, in the eastern and central United States and southeast and south-central Canada. It has been introduced to small areas in Western Europe, where it can frequently be seen cultivated in gardens and parks. It prefers good soil that is slightly acidic. Often simply called red oak, northern red oak is so named to distinguish it from southern red oak (Q. falcata), also known as the Spanish oak. Northern red oak is sometimes called champion oak.
Quercus suber, commonly called the cork oak, is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree in the section Quercus sect. Cerris. It is the primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses, such as cork flooring and as the cores of cricket balls. It is native to southwest Europe and northwest Africa. In the Mediterranean basin the tree is an ancient species with fossil remnants dating back to the Tertiary period.
Saturniidae, members of which are commonly named the saturniids, is a family of Lepidoptera with an estimated 2,300 described species. The family contains some of the largest species of moths in the world. Notable members include the emperor moths, royal moths, and giant silk moths.
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.
The oak processionary (OPM) is a moth whose caterpillars can be found in oak forests, where they feed on oak leaves, causing significant damage. They travel in nose-to-tail processions, often arrow-headed, with a leader followed by rows of several caterpillars abreast. They are a human irritant because of their venomous setae, which can cause skin irritation and asthma. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.
Antheraea polyphemus, the Polyphemus moth, is a North American member of the family Saturniidae, the giant silk moths. It is a tan-colored moth, with an average wingspan of 15 cm (6 in). The most notable feature of the moth is its large, purplish eyespots on its two hindwings. The eyespots give it its name – from the Greek myth of the cyclops Polyphemus. The species was first described by Pieter Cramer in 1776. The species is widespread in continental North America, with local populations found throughout subarctic Canada and the United States. The caterpillar can eat 86,000 times its weight at emergence in a little less than two months. Polyphemus moths are considered to be very polyphagous, meaning they eat from a wide variety of plants.
Orgyia vetusta, also known as the western tussock moth, formerly Hemerocampa vetusta, is a moth found in the Pacific States and British Columbia. The species is dimorphic; the females are flightless.
Chionodes petalumensis is a species of moth in the family Gelechiidae. It is found in North America from southern British Columbia to California, Arizona and Colorado.
Hypomecis roboraria, the great oak beauty, is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species occurs in the Palearctic. The nominate subspecies is found in Europe. The subspecies isabellaria is found in western Central Asia east across Siberia and Mongolia to northern China.
Carcina quercana is a species of moth of the family Depressariidae. It is found in Europe. It has been introduced recently in North America, British Columbia and western Washington. It is occasionally known by several common names including oak lantern, long-horned flat-body, and oak-skeletonizer moth.
Pseudotelphusa scalella is a moth of the family Gelechiidae. It is found from most of Europe to the southern Ural and the Volga region. It is also found in Turkey.
Acronicta albarufa, the barrens dagger moth, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It has a fragmented distribution in North America that includes southern Ontario and Manitoba, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, and Colorado. It may also be present in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, mainland New York and New Mexico. It has been suggested that populations in the south-western United States may be a separate species. It is listed as a species of special concern and believed extirpated in the US state of Connecticut.
Antiblemma rufinans, the live oak antiblemma, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Achille Guenée in 1852. It is found in dry, sandy woodlands, barrens, and scrub forests of the southern Florida plain. It is also present in South America, Cuba and Jamaica.
Coleophora ibipennella is a moth of the case-bearer family (Coleophoridae). It was first described by Philipp Christoph Zeller in 1849 and is found in Asia, Europe and North Africa. The larva feed within a pistol case on oak leaves and in the past was confused with Coleophora betulella, whose larva feed from a similar looking pistol case on birch leaves.
Antheraea pernyi, the Chinese oak tussar moth, Chinese tasar moth or temperate tussar moth, is a large moth in the family Saturniidae. The species was first described by Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville in 1855. Antheraea roylei is an extremely close relative, and the present species might actually have evolved from ancestral A. roylei by chromosome rearrangement.
Isotrias rectifasciana, the hedge shade, is a species of moth of the family Tortricidae found in Asia and Europe. The moth was first described by the English entomologist, Adrian Hardy Haworth in 1811.
