Type

Native

Exotic, but established

Taxonomy

Pandemis Hübner (Tortricidae: Tortricinae: Archipini)

Overview

Pandemis contains approximately 70 described species, the center of diversity of which is Madagascar, which is the type locality of no fewer than 30 species. Whether or not these Madagascan species are conspecific with the type species of the genus remains to be seen. Decent numbers of species also occur in China, Europe, and North America. Seven species of Pandemis are native to North America; two Palearctic species have been introduced for a total of nine species occurring in North America. We treat five of these species on this site and include a sixth, P. canadana, in the table below.

Larvae of Holarctic species tend to be highly polyphagous leaf-rollers of broad-leaved trees and shrubs, reaching significant pest status at times. There are one or two generations per year, depending on species and climate. Females lay eggs in large clusters on the leaves or twigs of the host plant. For all species treated on this site, overwintering occurs as a larva in a spun hibernaculum on the host plant, after which larvae resume feeding and pupate in the final feeding site.

Most Pandemis have a very archetypal archipine forewing pattern with well-defined fasciaefasciae:
plural of "fascia"
and a yellow-brown to dark brown ground color. Males of the Nearctic species have a notch at the base of the antenna (poorly developed in species formerly placed in Parapandemis: P. borealis, P. coniferana, and P. morrisana) and lack a forewing costal foldforewing costal fold:
a flap or fold at the base of the forewing that contains specialized sex scales
. Larvae can be distinguished from other Nearctic Tortricidae by the characters outlined in MacKay (1962a).

Species determination in Pandemis can be difficult and is primarily based on forewing and hindwing pattern and coloration, but these differences are not always reliable. Examination of the genitalia is useful for some species, but not for others (Dombroskie & Sperling 2012). Male genitalia are characterized by a broad uncusuncus:
a sclerotized process which is fused to the posterodorsal margin of tergum IX
and large, circular or obliquely triangular valvaevalvae:
plural of "valva"
with a well-developed sacculussacculus:
the ventral margin of the male valva
. Female genitalia are characterized by a broad, funnel-like ostiumostium:
see ostium bursae
and a relatively short thorn-like signumsignum:
a sclerotized projection or patch on the interior of the corpus bursae
with a large basal plate and/or capitulumcapitulum:
in reference to the female signum; a knoblike projection
.

Pandemis lamprosana, P. cerasana, and P. heparana, can be identified by wing color and male genitalia. Three other common species, P. canadana, P. limitata, and P. pyrusana, exhibit variable wing patterns, share nearly identical genitalia, and cannot be reliably separated where their distributions overlap. The following table lists a combination of wing color and geographic distribution that can be used to identify many Pandemis individuals collected in the U.S.

 

Species	Forewing color	Hindwing color	Sex scales on male 2nd abd. segment	Distribution
canadana	medium to dark brown	all gray	present	Maine, Colorado, Wyoming, Southern Canada
cerasana	straw to light brown	grayish brown	present	Pacific Northwest, British Columbia; Europe and Asia
heparana	medium brown	light to medium grayish brown	absent	Pacific Northwest; Northeastern U.S. and neighboring Canada; Europe and Asia
lamprosana	tan to light brown	white to light gray	absent	Eastern U.S. and neighboring Canada, south to Tennessee/North Carolina
limitata	straw to medium brown	gray and white	present	Eastern U.S. and neighboring Canada, generally absent in the U.S. west of the Rocky Mtns.
pyrusana	straw to medium brown	all white	present	Rocky Mtns. west to California, southern Alberta and British Columbia

 

Included species:

Exotic, but established species

Pandemis cerasana

Pandemis heparana

Native species

Pandemis lamprosana

Pandemis limitata

Pandemis pyrusana 

Host plant table (embedded)

View full screen host table here

Links

Additional photos and distribution maps for species in the United States and Canada are available at Moth Photographers Group.