Trichoplusia ni
| Cabbage looper | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Noctuidae |
| Tribe: | Argyrogrammatini |
| Genus: | Trichoplusia |
| Species: | T. ni |
| Binomial name | |
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Trichoplusia ni (Hübner, 1800–1803) |
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| Synonyms | |
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The cabbage looper (Trichoplusia ni) is a member of the moth family Noctuidae. It is found throughout the southern Palaearctic ecozone, all of North America, parts of Africa and most of the Oriental, parts of Europe (primarily South Europe) and Indo-Australian region. In the United Kingdom, where the adult is primarily a (sometimes numerous) immigrant but breeding is rare, the species is also known as the Ni Moth. The name derives from the forewing marking, which resembles the lowercase Greek letter ni.
The caterpillar, a measuring worm, is smooth and pale green with white stripes and is one of a many species called cabbage worm. It is called a "looper" because it arches its body as it crawls, inchworm-style. This species is very destructive to plants due to its voracious consumption of leaves. It is not restricted to cole crops; other plant hosts include tomato, cucumber, thyme, collard greens, and potato. The adult of the species is a nocturnal brown moth.
Forewing grey suffused with olive brownish and dusted with black atoms; lines black, double, filled in with pale lustrous scales; the inner forming two small curves between median vein and vein 1, with some lustrous scales before it; the outer irregularly crenulate, nearly straight, followed by a pale grey band; subterminal line followed by lustrous scaling and preceded by black sagittate marks; a straight pale line before termen followed by a double lunulate line; fringe chequered brown and grey, with dark lunules at base beyond a white line;orbicular stigma narrow, oblique, edged with lustrous; reniform obscure, dark-edged; median area just below median vein dark brown, containing a broad gamma-shaped mark, the top of which is bell-shaped with ochreous centre, black edged, and outlined in silvery, attached to an oval silvery tail, sometimes also centred with ochreous; hindwing dull brownish, with dark veins and broad smoky blackish terminal border; the fringe white; in the ab. comma Schultz the stigma below middle forms a y-mark.
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Wikipedia