''Erechthias flavistriata'', the sugarcane bud moth, is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

of the family

Tineidae Tineidae is a family of moths in the order Lepidoptera described by Pierre André Latreille in 1810. Collectively, they are known as fungus moths or tineid moths. The family contains considerably more than 3,000 species in more than 300 genera. ...

. It was described by Lord Walsingham in 1907 from

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, but is probably an introduced species. It is found in large parts of the Pacific Rim including the

Marquesas The Marquesas Islands (; french: Îles Marquises or ' or '; Marquesan: ' ( North Marquesan) and ' ( South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in t ...

Rapa Iti Rapa, also called Rapa Iti, or "Little Rapa", to distinguish it from Easter Island, whose Polynesian name is Rapa Nui, is the largest and only inhabited island of the Bass Islands in French Polynesia. An older name for the island is Oparo. The ...

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

, the

New Hebrides New Hebrides, officially the New Hebrides Condominium (french: link=no, Condominium des Nouvelles-Hébrides, "Condominium of the New Hebrides") and named after the Hebrides Scottish archipelago, was the colonial name for the island group ...

, the

Kermadec Islands The Kermadec Islands ( mi, Rangitāhua) are a subtropical island arc in the South Pacific Ocean northeast of New Zealand's North Island, and a similar distance southwest of Tonga. The islands are part of New Zealand. They are in total are ...

, the Solomons,

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

and

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

. It has been spread widely by man and probably has travelled to many islands throughout much of the Pacific in the canoes of the native peoples.

Description

The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is about 12 mm. Adults have a pale yellowish-white or greyish-white color with a few yellower streaks and numerous black or brown dots on the wings.

Biology

Larvae have been recorded feeding on banana, coconut and other palms, ''

Pandanus ''Pandanus'' is a genus of monocots with some 750 accepted species. They are palm-like, dioecious trees and shrubs native to the Old World tropics and subtropics. The greatest number of species are found in Madagascar and Malaysia. Common names ...

'' species, pineapple and sugarcane. The full-grown larva is about 12 to 15 mm. The larvae are found beneath the leaf-sheaths of the older leaves which are partially or completely dead and dried. The larvae create a silken web by which they partially conceal themselves. They are most abundant where no stripping has been done or where there is more or less of a tangled mass of leaves. They normally feed upon the dried leaf-sheaths themselves, also on the leaves. On the sheath they feed on the inner side towards the cane stalk, eating out between the strands of fibers, often burrowing into the substance of the leaf-sheath. Besides their normal feeding, however, they often eat off the surface of the rind for considerable areas, particularly at or just above the nodes and sometimes eat off the surface from the whole internode. The worst damage however, is done when they eat out the buds or "eyes" which they sometimes do for several in succession, or for from one to three feet of the cane stalk. The eating of the "eyes" is a serious injury, creating an opportunity for the admission of fungus spores and rendering the cane valueless for usage as a seed. The pupa is 5.5–6 mm and very pale yellowish brown. The pupa is formed within a cocoon made in the same location in which the larva has been feeding. It is 6–10 mm long and usually has an outer layer of fibrous material from the leaf-sheath where the larva fed. Adults emerge in about two or three weeks.

References

External links

* Erechthiinae Fauna of Seychelles Moths described in 1907 Moths of New Zealand {{Tineidae-stub