Species Vitula edmandsii - American Wax Moth - Hodges#6007

6007

Dried Fruit Moth

Driedfruit Moth

Vitula edmandsii (Packard, 1864)

Nephopteryx [sic] edmandsii Packard, 1864

Vitula dentosella Ragonot, 1887

Vitula edmandsae Heinrich, 1956 emendation

Wingspan: 20–25 mm (1)

Adult: Distinctive blue-grey FW ground color, with a slight rosy suffusion with blackish markings. (1)

Southeastern Canada and eastern USA.

Type locality (edmandsii): Warwick, MA; Bridport, VT.

Type locality (dentosella): Florida; North Carolina.

Multivoltine on Block Island, RI, with adult records from early June through mid-October.(2)

Larvae are larger than larvae of the Indian meal moth. From egg to adult, the elapsed time averages 88 days. In the summer, the incubation period is about 9 days, larvae develop for 69 days, and the pupal period lasts 10 days. Adults live about 9 days and lay eggs for about 6 days. Their egg production varies from 63 to 200 but averages 128. These moths pass the winter as larvae

"In western North America the driedfruit moth, Vitula serratilineella Ragonot, is a pest of stored raisins, prunes, dried apple and other dried fruit product. It is distiguished by... lighter colored forewings and nearly white (not brownish) hindwings. In eastern North America a closely related species, Vitula edmandsii (Packard), has brownish hindwings. It invades beehives but is not known to be a true pest of stored-products. Some authorities consider V. edmandsii and V. serratilineella a single species, with a western subspecies V. edmandsii serratilineella. Others retain the division between eastern and western species."

[Alan R. Olsen, Fundamentals of Microanalytical Entomology]

Vitula serratilineella is a western species. See "Remarks" above.

Packard, A. S. 1865: The humble bees of New England and their parasites; with notices of a new species of Anthophorabia, and a new genus of Proctotrupidae. Proceedings of the Essex Institute. 4(6): 120; pl. 3 figs 2, 2a, 2b.