Dear all,
First of all Greetings for the New Year!
Can someone of the "pestnet" group can give us the name of the attached photos of the moth species found on cocoa fruit (the larvae are boring the fruit) or at least to get an idea?
Thank you very much in advance for your reply,
Kind regards,
Paul
Posted on user's behalf
Hi Paul,
I’m not familiar with the Afrotropical fauna or your moth in particular, but the scale tufts on the wings, the resting posture and mouthparts suggest that it is a nolid, particularly subfamily Nolinae. However, the larva doesn’t look much like that subfamily, so maybe one of the other subfamilies in the Nolidae. There are a few species of nolid recorded from Theobroma in Africa (https://tinyurl.com/yafofhmw), also https://www.africanmoths.com/pages/NOLIDAE/nolidae%20thumbs.html, but I haven’t been able to identify this particular one.
Cheers,
Dave
David Britton
Senior Entomologist
I Northern Australian Quarantine Strategy (NAQS)
Phone 07 4241 7860
I Fax 07 4241 7845
I Mobile 0476 833 862
Department of Agriculture and Water Resources
Building 114, Catalina Crescent, Airport Business Centre, Cairns Airport
Box 96 AAC Cairns International Airport QLD 4870
Posted on user's behalf