''Hypsipyla grandella'' 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

Pyralidae The Pyralidae, commonly called pyralid moths, snout moths or grass moths, are a family of Lepidoptera in the ditrysian superfamily Pyraloidea. In many (particularly older) classifications, the grass moths (Crambidae) are included in the Pyrali ...

. It is found in southern Florida (United States), most of the West Indies,

Sinaloa Sinaloa (), officially the Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sinaloa), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is d ...

and southward in Mexico, Central America, South America except Chile and in

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

. The larvae cause damage by feeding on new shoots of mahogany (''

Swietenia ''Swietenia'' is a genus of trees in the chinaberry family, Meliaceae. It occurs natively in the Neotropics, from southern Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America south to Bolivia. The genus is named for Dutch-Austrian physician Gerar ...

'' spp.) and cedro (also known as Spanish-cedar and tropical-cedar; ''

Cedrela ''Cedrela'' is a genus of several species in the mahogany family, Meliaceae. They are evergreen or dry-season deciduous trees with pinnate leaves, native to the tropical and subtropical New World, from southern Mexico south to northern Argentina ...

'' spp.). ''H. grandella'' feeds on the West Indies mahoganies in southern Florida, which restricts the reproduction of the mahogany population. The insects prefer a tree that gets full sun light, and isn't being shaded by a canopy level. The larvae are often called mahogany shoot borers, but the name may differ by country.

References

External links

mahogany shoot borer
on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site {{DEFAULTSORT:Hypsipyla Grandella Moths described in 1848 Phycitini Moths of Mauritius Moths of North America Moths of South America Moths of the Caribbean