''Amyelois'' is a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

snout moth The Pyralidae, commonly called pyralid moths, snout moths or grass moths, are a family (biology), family of Lepidoptera in the ditrysian Taxonomic rank, superfamily Pyraloidea. In many (particularly older) classifications, the grass moths (Cramb ...

genus described by

Hans Georg Amsel Hans Georg Amsel (29 March 1905 – 20 October 1999) was a German entomologist with four publications ranging from 1951 to 1962. His home town was Cologne, although he frequently was in Kiel. His original job was in the banking industry, and he la ...

in 1956. Its single species, ''Amyelois transitella'', the navel orangeworm, described by Francis Walker in 1863, is endemic to the tropical Western Hemisphere, including the southern United States. Its abundance in California increased greatly during the first half of the 20th century. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is 9.7 to 10.9 mm. Adults are on wing from the end of March to the end of October in California. The larvae are considered a commercial pest of a number of California crops, including walnut (''

Juglans regia ''Juglans regia'', known by various common names including the common walnut, English walnut, or Persian walnut amongst other names, is a species of walnut. It is native to Eurasia in at least southwest and central Asia and southeast Europe, ...

''), fig (''

Ficus carica The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Moraceae, native to the Mediterranean region, together with western and southern Asia. It has been cultivated since ancient times and is ...

''), almond (''

Prunus dulcis The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree from the genus ''Prunus''. Along with the peach, it is classified in the subgenus ''Amygdalus'', distinguished from the other subgenera by corrugations on the sh ...

'') and pistachio (''

Pistacia vera The pistachio (, ; ''Pistacia vera'') is a small to medium-sized tree of the cashew family, originating in Iran. The tree produces seeds that are widely consumed as food. In 2022, world production of pistachios was one million tonnes, with ...

'').

Pheromones

Female ''A. transitella'' release very similar sex pheromones to that of female ''

Pyralis farinalis ''Pyralis farinalis'', the meal moth, is a cosmopolitan moth of the family Pyralidae. Its larvae (caterpillars) are pests of certain stored foods, namely milled plant products. It is the type species of the genus '' Pyralis'', and by extensio ...

''. Both species release the pheromone (Z,Z)-11,13-hexa decadienal which is used to attract males. Male ''P. farinalis'' have been observed attempting to mate with female ''A. transitella'', but it does not seem as though these copulations are successful in producing offspring.

References

External links

Sexual behavior of the navel OrangeWorm, ''Amyelois transitella'' (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)Bug Guide
Taxa named by Hans Georg Amsel Phycitinae Monotypic moth genera Moths of North America Moths of South America Pyralidae genera {{Phycitinae-stub