Forest Tent Caterpillar
By Talen Getchell
Name and Alias
Scientific Name - Malacosoma Disstria
Common Name - Forest Tent Caterpillar
Physical Description
This caterpillar is 2 inches long with markings of pale bluish lines along the sides of a brownish body. And a row of footprint-shaped, white spots on a black background.
Distribution map
As shown in the map above the Forest Tent Caterpillar lives in northern parts of America and southern forests of Canada.
Reasons why its a threat?
Forest Tent Caterpillars cause mass defoliation in large sections of forests, although the defoliation wont kill the tree it slows its growth and production greatly.
How do we control the growing FTC threat?
The Caterpillar is not a invasive species in the sense that it was brought here, its native to America and is ¨Invasive¨ because it invades forests in large swarms and destroys it entirely, such as the incident in North Dakota 2003 (shown above). luckily this caterpillar has a natural enemy, the Sarcophaga aldrichi, or the large flesh fly is a good natural way of eliminating the FTC.