Applegater
Summer 2011 9
Notes from a Rogue entomologist:
The Oregon state insect —
A tale of pests, pollinators and politics
By RiChaRD J. hiLton
The official Oregon state insect
is the Oregon Swallowtail, Papilio
oregonius, a classic yellow and black
butterfly that is native to the Pacific
Northwest, primarily found in the
Columbia River region where the
caterpillars feed on tarragon sagebrush.
A brief survey of the state insect list shows
that 42 states have state insects and/or
state butterflies. In fact there are 11 states
that have both a state butterfly and a state
insect. Of the 56 insects recognized at the
state level, 25 are butterflies and 17 states
have the honeybee as their state insect.
But, the domesticated honeybee is not
native to North America, and the USDA
agricultural statistics list honeybees as
livestock. While honeybees provide vital
pollination services to agriculture as well
as honey and wax, would you really want
the state mammal to be a cow instead of
the beaver (and I say that as someone who
definitely enjoys a good barbecued tri-tip)?
My research indicates that the
first state insect was the California dog
face butterfly recognized informally
in 1929. The dog face butterfly is a
unique insect that is only found inside
California. In 1972, California made the
designation official and following this
groundbreaking legislative action the 70s
experienced a boom in state insects with
over twenty states honoring an insect and
more than half the time, the domesticated
honeybee was the honoree. As part of
this trend, a group of folks in Oregon
decided that a species of rain beetle,
Pleocoma oregonensis, which has only been
found in Oregon, would make a good
candidate for state insect. Rain beetles
are large scarabs found in the western US.
The beetle’s underside is covered with a
dense mat of hairs that is quite striking.
The male beetles make their mating flight
in the fall with the first rains, hence the
name. The beetles spend most of their
life in the soil as larval grubs feeding on
roots. “Rufus the rain beetle” became the
mascot for the cause, and a class of third-
graders took up Rufus’s banner and went
to the Oregon legislature to make the case.
However, it is reported that the
legislators responded in a supercilious
manner, one observer noted that the
schoolchildren were better behaved than
the representatives. I should note that most
of the information that I have regarding this
episode comes from rain beetle proponents,
so I expect that their view may not be
entirely unbiased. In any event after the
cool reception meted out for the rain beetle,
the beekeepers entered the fray, pushing
the hard-working honeybee for state
insect. School children were enlisted on the
S
chool children were enlisted on
the honeybee’s behalf and the
battle was on.
honeybee’s behalf and the battle was on.
At this point, it came to light that
rain beetles had, on occasion, become pests
on fruit trees. Normally the rain beetle
grubs feed on naturally occurring roots,
such as Ponderosa pine, but when the
native vegetation is removed and replaced
with fruit trees then the grubs will respond
accordingly. In a few orchards in Hood
River and The Dalles the damage to the
fruit tree’s roots which had accumulated
over time was found to cause significant
impacts to tree growth. It is not clear
whether “opposition research” was the
reason this information became known but,
in any case, it was a fatal blow to the rain
beetle’s chances. Despite the beetle backers
attempts to downplay the pestiferous
nature of their candidate (in fact, Pleocoma
oregonensis had not even been listed as one
of the pest species), it soon became clear
that once the rain beetle had been fingered
as a pest that any hope of becoming state
insect was dashed. So
the beetle proponents
gamely searched for a
new candidate to carry
the torch. The goal
appeared to be twofold:
firstly, find an insect that
was distinctly Oregon
in nature that would
highlight our insect
d i ve r s i t y ; s e c o n d l y,
prevent the honeybee
from becoming the state
insect. At this point, it
seems that feelings were
running a bit high on
both sides. The situation resembled the
old saying about academia, “the politics are
so intense because the stakes are so low.”
Finally, in 1979, Oregon emerged
with the aforementioned Oregon
Swallowtail butterfly as our beautiful and
unobjectionable insect ambassador. The
yellow swallowtail that we see flitting about
here in southern Oregon is not our state
insect but a more common relative, the
western tiger swallowtail. This butterfly
is found throughout the western US, the
caterpillars are not specific to a certain type
of plant, but can feed on a wide variety of
trees. Certainly, the rain beetle would have
made for a unique state insect—no other
state has a scarab beetle. The only other
beetles that are state insects are either lady
beetles or lightning bugs, not to mention
that the rain beetle would have been the
only state insect that is also a pest. In the
end, despite their unusual nature, the
tourism bureau was probably quite relieved
that the rain beetle effort was not successful.
Richard J. Hilton
541-772-5165 ext. 227
Senior Research Assistant / Entomologist
Oregon State University
Southern Oregon Research and
Extension Center
PICTURE TOP: Oregon Swallowtail (Papilio
oregonius). http://www.flickr.com/photos/
mister-atomic/5824470756/galleries/
PICTURE BOTTOM: Rain beetle (Pleocoma
puncticollis). http://labs1.eol.org/
pages/17264?text_id=6365308. From
the Smithsonian Institution, Copyright ©
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum
of Natural History, Entomology. Some rights
reserved. Supplier: National Museum of
Natural History Image Collection.
NOTE: For a color photo of a swallowtail
butterfly, check out the photo on the masthead
(page 1).
Silver-spotted tiger moth
By toDD muRRay
Apparently due to our long, wet spring, the Applegate Valley had an abundance
of an unidentified fuzzy crawler. I queried many as to the name of this creature, but
had no success. Not one to give up, I contacted the Master Gardener, Marsha Waite,
who identified it as the “silver-spotted tiger moth.” Then I did an online search and
found this excellent article by Todd Murray, who gave us his full written permission
to reprint it here.
Sioux Rogers
Silver-spotted tiger moth. Order: Lepidoptera; Family: Arctiidae; Species: ophocampa argentata
Description and Life History:
Well, I was sitting here wondering which
pest to write about, and right here, in front
of my nose (or at least right outside my
window) is a silver-spotted tiger moth. I
thought I was too late for this to be a timely
“pest of the month.” The silver-spotted
tiger moth caterpillar is out right now,
munching mostly on Douglas fir, but it can
occur on true firs and pines, too. The larvae
of the silver-spotted tiger moth are rather
unusual looking. Larvae have dark-colored
bodies with intermixed tufts of rusty and
black hairs. Along the dorsum (the back),
there are a series of yellowish tufts. Not
many caterpillars out in the early spring
look like this, so you shouldn’t confuse
this critter with anything else. Larvae are
present for a good chunk of the year. They
hatch out from eggs in late summer and
early fall. Larvae feed in aggregations well
into and throughout winter depending
on warm temperatures. When springtime
comes, larvae spread out and increase
feeding activity on the tree’s needles; this
is usually when you will see them and their
damage. In mid to late June, larvae seek out
Silver-spotted tiger moth caterpillar. http://
whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/homehor t/pest/
sstigermoth.htm.
protected habitats to pupate. The adults
of the silver-spotted tiger moth are rather
attractive; the wings are brown with white
and silver spots. Adults fly and lay eggs
from July to August. The eggs are deposited
on the foliage of the host trees.
Monitoring: Begin looking
for aggregations of silver-spotted tiger
moth larvae as early as January. These
aggregations usually create a webbed
tent to feed in and are isolated to a single
branch. It may be difficult to spot that
early in the season but continue to look
for populations throughout springtime as
damage becomes more apparent.
Management: The best Integrated
Pest Management (IPM) approach for tiger
moths is the “do nothing” method. I don’t
see moth, page 11