However, it is able to thrive on a wide variety of host plants ranging from fruits, vegetables, flowers, and weeds.

The life cycle generally occurs during the warmer months of late spring to early fall, depending on the region that the budworm is found.

During later instars, larvae have variable colors ranging from greenish to pinkish, or even a dark red or maroon with a broad brown head capsule.

The budworm overwinters in the pupal stage, and diapause or dormancy can be initiated by either short days or low temperatures.

However, it has also been spotted in California and even in New England and southern Canada during the later summer months as it disperses northward annually.

Generally, Chloridea virescens spends the winter in the Southern states, but it has been seen to survive northern climates in sheltered areas such as greenhouses.

Aside from plants that are grown for agricultural reasons, C. virescens larvae also attack flower crops such as geranium and a large variety of weeds.

Studies in Florida show that C. virescens prefer tobacco more highly than other field crops and vegetables, but cabbage, collards, okra, and tomato were all still attacked.

Chloridea virescens lays its eggs on the leaves of its host plants; upon hatching, larvae migrate to the terminal area and then to the buds to feed.

[1][8] The braconid wasp, Microplitis croceipes, which deposits its eggs inside a living caterpillar, is an important parasitoid of both C. virescens and the related species Helicoverpa zea.

[9] In northern Florida, the predominant parasite of C. virescens on tobacco plants was Cardiochiles nigriceps, a parasitoid wasp.

[10] Meteorus autographae was as common as C. nigriceps in larvae collected from white clover, and at least ten other parasitoids were recorded between April and October.

These hair-pencil pheromones attract conspecific females, specifically when males were presented with the option of mating with C. virescens and H.

[13] In Chloridea virescens, juvenile hormone (JH, which regulates many aspects of insect development) is necessary for the deposition of nutrients into the female germ cell, or yolk formation (vitellogenesis).

[14] Vitellogenin (VG), an egg yolk precursor protein, is dependent on juvenile hormone levels.

Records dating back to the early 1800s have descriptions of pest damage and control measures that match the damage caused by Chloridea virescens; the USDA has records dating to around 100 years ago describing significant losses to tobacco agriculture totaling around US$2000 per hectare.

"[16] This damage occurs because larvae tunnel into buds and blossoms, tender terminal growth, leaf petioles, and stalks of their host plant.

[16] Part of the reason Chloridea virescens has proved so difficult to control is because of its ability to rapidly evolve insecticide and pesticide resistance.

[1] Large cone-shaped wire traps are baited with sex pheromone lures are able to capture adult moths.

[1] Mowing or killing weeds with herbicide early in the spring can reduce budworm population size later in the year.

[1] Heliothis nuclear polyhedrosis virus have been used to suppress populations on field crops and early season weed hosts.

[1] Around the 1980s, a multi-tactic approach was developed, including destruction of weed hosts, biological insecticides, and release of sterile Chloridea virescens crosses.

[16] Studies have been done on the usage of reserpine and subsequently exposing the moth with gamma irradiation (treatments ranged from 0 to 25 krad).

Fertility (percentage hatched) was dramatically reduced, and greater doses of radiation resulted in a sex imbalance that lowered the proportion of female progeny.

[18] Transgenic cotton that has been genetically engineered to express Bacillus thuringiensis toxins have proved incredibly effective for controlling Chloridea virescens populations.

A study in North Carolina collected wild Chloridea virescens populations and fed some diets containing Bacillus thuringiensis toxins.

However, studies modeling this situation suggest that Chloridea virescens larvae will simply ingest sublethal doses of toxin, then move to a nontransgenic plant and recover.