Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Family Prodoxidae - Yucca Moths

Yucca moth? - Prodoxus marginatus gray moths on Lithophragma parviflora - Greya politella possible Bogus Yucca Moth Prodoxinae? Prodoxus ?? Yucca Moth (Tegeticula sp.) - Tegeticula Greya powelli - male Prodoxidae: Greya politella - Greya politella
Show images of: caterpillars · adults · both
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
Superfamily Adeloidea (Fairy Moths and kin)
Family Prodoxidae (Yucca Moths)
Numbers
64 species in 7 genera in 2 subfamilies in North America listed in Pohl, et al. 2016 provisional checklist(1)
Size
Wingspan 5-33 mm.
Identification
"Head with rough hairlike scales; antennae simple in both sexes, approximately one half the length of the front wing; scale without pecten; ocelli absent; proboscis short, uncoiled when not in use, and galea not appressed to form a sucking tube; mandibles present but greatly reduced, not functional; labial palpi 3-segmented; rarely 2-segmented; maxillary palpi 5-segmented, very long, nearly as long as haustellum, folded against head. wings white in most species, but with dark markings; dark in some species." Arnett, p. 658 (2)
Life Cycle
Larvae bore into seeds and stems of yucca and agave.
Print References
Davis, D. R. 1967. A revision of the moths of the subfamily Prodoxinae (Lepidoptera: Incurvariidae). United States National Museum Bulletin 255: 1-170
(2)
Internet References
Works Cited
1.Annotated taxonomic checklist of the Lepidoptera of North America, North of Mexico
Pohl, G.R., Patterson, B., & Pelham, J.P. 2016. ResearchGate.net.
2.American Insects: A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico
Ross H. Arnett. 2000. CRC Press.