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Soybean
Loopers as a group can easily be identified by the two pairs of abdominal
prolegs near the back of the body. All other crop caterpillars have either three
or four pairs of abdominal prolegs. Loopers also have a very characteristic
behavior when they walk, which gives them their name, looper. The larvae have
six instars with the last instar reaching 35 mm in length. The last two instar
stages eat 90 percent of all the leaf area consumed during their short life. Soybean loopers are
a tropical pest that migrate to Delta states from the Caribbean and extreme
southern Louisiana. When spring winds are from the Gulf of Mexico, loopers are blown
north. That's why soybean loopers traditionally show up first in the south and
move north. Threshold levels are 25 percent
defoliation and that equates to around 4 to 6 loopers per row foot. Soybean plants are relatively tolerant of early-season defoliation. Soybean Loopers
are generally not a economic problem in the upper mid-west.
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