''Melitara dentata'', the North American cactus 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

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 Pyralida ...

. The species was first described by

Augustus Radcliffe Grote Augustus Radcliffe Grote (February 7, 1841 – September 12, 1903) was a British entomologist who described over 1,000 species of butterflies and moths.Osborn, H. 1937. Fragments of Entomological History. Columbus, OH: Published by the author ...

in 1876. It is native to western North America, where it is widespread from

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

to southern

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

and central

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. It is an

introduced species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived ther ...

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 state ...

. 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 o ...

is 32–50 mm. Adults have a stocky, grayish body with long and narrow gray forewings, often with a whitish costal margin. The forewings have a row of dark spots near the tip with one spot between each pair of veins and a distinct (but often weak) double zigzag cross band, a distinct black discal spot and a weak, dark angled cross band near the wing base. The hindwings are broad and white, mostly with grayish margins. There is one generation per year. The larvae feed on '' Opuntia'' species, including '' Opuntia fragilis'', '' Opuntia macrorhiza'' and ''

Opuntia polyacantha ''Opuntia polyacantha'' is a common species of cactus known by the common names plains pricklypear,Johnson, K. A. 2000''Opuntia polyacantha''.In: Fire Effects Information System, nline U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mo ...

''. Pupation takes place in the silk cases.

External links

* *Simonsen, Thomas J. & Brown, Richard L
"''Melitara dentata'' (Grote)"
''Cactus Moths and Their Relatives (Pyralidae: Phycitinae)''. Mississippi State University. Retrieved November 11, 2020. * Moths described in 1876 Phycitini {{Phycitini-stub