Insects That Eat Basswood

• Basswood, also known as Linden, is an ornamental tree with fragrant flowers. Providing wildlife habitat, shade and soft, light wood for carving the basswood has a high tolerance for pollution and salt. The flowers of the basswood tree are used for making linden tea that possesses herbal properties, according to the Ontario Extension Notes.

Linden Looper

• The linden looper feed on the leaves of the basswood appearing from mid-August to late November. It overwinters in the egg stage with caterpillars hatching from the eggs and feeding on the leaves until June or July. Growing to about 1 1/2 inches long the caterpillars possess a bright-yellow body with a rusty-brown head and ten wavy black lines across the length of its body. Adult linen looper females have no wing whereas the males possess forewings with two wavy brown bands on the wings. Males are buff-colored while the females are a more light grey to brown. The female linden looper have two rows of black spots on her sides and her back.

Fall Webworm

• Webworms feed off basswood leaves in addition to building webs that damage the leaves. Overwintering within cocoons located in crevices in the bark the adult moths emerge in the summer. Wingspan of the adults reach approximately 1 1/4 inches and vary in color from white thickly spotted in small dark brown dots or just satiny white. The female will lay about 400 to 500 eggs on the underside of the basswood's leaves. The caterpillars hatch in approximately 10 days and live in a colony spinning webs on the ends of the branches that enclose the leaves. They then feed off the leaves within the webbing. Caterpillars leave the nest at the time of maturity in order to spin a cocoon in a protected place. Mature caterpillars possess a long dark brown stripe down their back and measure about 1 1/4 inches long. Their yellowish sides are thickly peppered with small blackish dots.

Mulberry Whitefly

• The mulberry whitefly nymphs or larvae reside on the undersides of the basswood leaves. The whitefly larvae are actually dark brown or black in color and fringed in white wax, according to the Plant Pest Handbook of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. White wing spotted with red and brownish black dots adorn the adult whiteflies.