General Information

COMMON NAMES: Mango-flower Moth, Blossom Moth, Mango-flower Webber GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: RANGE Indonesia / Australia - Societies COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Introduced - Recent, Naturalised; Land, lowlands and lower inland SIGNIFICANCE LIST: ; horticultural pest KEY FEATURES: Small moth (6mmTL) red-brown and grey with double line on fore wing.

Cook Islands Distribution

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Southern Group: Present    Makatea:
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
P

Northern Group:
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW

Cryptoblabes plagioleuca (Turner, 1904)
SYNONYMS: Cryptoblabes gnidiella Milliere [of BMNH]

TAXONOMY: ANIMALIA; ARTHROPODA; ATELOCERATA; HEXAPODA; INSECTA; PTERYGOTA; Lepidoptera; PYRALIDAE

SIGNIFICANCE NOTES -
NEGATIVE SIGNIFICANCE: horticultural pest. Comments: The caterpillar damages the flowers of Mango and citrus.

IDENTIFICATION: Small moth (6mmTL) red-brown and grey with double line on fore wing. Fore wings either dark red-brown, with white and darker brown diagonal stripe 1/3rd of the way along or entirely red-brown or grey-brown; obscure fainter stripe also present near wing margin. Hind wings pearly grey. Underside darker distally. Head, Thorax, Abdomen, Legs and Antennae dark grey, head with palpi short, pointing upwards. Some specimens uniformly dark brownish-grey all over.

GENERAL NOTE: Biology: Caterpillars often in groups feeding on dying flower parts under light webbing; caterpillars appearing spotted, pale brown or beige with dark shiny heads; abundant on inflorescenes of mango, massed flowers of citrus, where feeding comes to include fertilised flowers, resulting in crop loss.

Vouchers:
Rarotonga: BESO99, specimen #206, ?211, 386, 506, 658, ID J.Dugdale 4/2000; specimen+photo, 2004, Eric Edwards and G.McCormack with ID 4/2005 J.Dugdale as Cryptoblabes plagioleuca.

References:
None recorded.

Data Update History (information):
zTX, zB02, zM04a, zupM05a, zD02

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