Sydney NSW, Australia
Identification request
2018-01-16T04:00:00.0000000Z
   3
Moth affecting cocoa, Kenya - Request for identification

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

Moths
Cocoa
Kenya
Pods
Pod_borer

Responses

   0
2018-01-16T14:00:00.0000000Z

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

Cocoa
Pod_borer
Nolidae
Nolinae
   0
2018-01-17T14:00:00.0000000Z
Dear Calatayud

This could be a moth belong to the family cossidae. there is a species named as Zeuzera coffeae which attack tea stems and  larva is red colour bore  galleries in stems (red borer attacking tea stems). This moth is  more similar to Zeuzera  sp.

Padmini Senanayake( PhD)
Head, Entomology & Nematlogy Division
Tea  Research Institute of Sri Lanka
Talawakrelle
Sri Lanka

Posted on user's behalf
Pod_borer
Cossidae
Cocoa_pods
Zeuzera