| Cabbage Looper | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Noctuidae |
| Tribe: | Argyrogrammatini |
| Genus: | Trichoplusia |
| Species: | T. ni |
| Binomial name | |
| Trichoplusia ni (Hübner, 1800-1803) |
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| Synonyms | |
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The Cabbage Looper (Trichoplusia ni) is a member of the moth family Noctuidae. It is found throughout the southern Palaearctic ecozone, all of North America, parts of Africa and most of the Oriental and Indo-Australian region.
The caterpillar, a measuring worm, is smooth and pale green with white stripes and is one of a many species called cabbage worm. It is called a "looper" because it arches its body as it crawls, inchworm-style. This species is very destructive to plants due to its voracious consumption of leaves. It is not restricted to cole crops; other plant hosts include tomato, cucumber and potato. The adult of the species is a nocturnal brown moth.
Trichoplusia ni is also used as an expression system in the field of molecular biology. High Five cells from Trichoplusia ni are one of the most commonly used cell lines in eukaryotic protein expression.