''Sclerocona'' is a genus of moths of the family Crambidae which contains only one species, ''Sclerocona acutella'' (also known as the streaked orange moth). It was first described by the Prussian biologist Eduard Friedrich Eversmann in 1842.

Life cycle

The wingspan is 25–28 mm. Adults are light brown. Larvae have been recorded feeding on corn ('' Zea'' species), nightshade and tomato ('' Lycopersicon'' species), hop ('' Humulus'' species), reed ('' Phragmites'' species) and wild bean (''

Phaseolus ''Phaseolus'' (bean, wild bean) is a genus of herbaceous to woody annual and perennial vines in the family Fabaceae containing about 70 plant species, all native to the Americas, primarily Mesoamerica. It is one of the most economically importan ...

'' species).

Distribution

The moth is found from Spain and Sicily north to Great Britain and Denmark and east to Siberia,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It is an introduced species in eastern

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. In Great Britain, the first three records (1988 to 1995) were thought to be migrants, but subsequent records from a garden near

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

, close to a newly-thatched cottage are believed to have originated from reeds imported from central Europe. A colony was discovered, in 2010, on the Isle of Wight at Afton Marsh and has been recorded annually since. The origin of the Isle of Wight moths in unknown and migration would seem the more likely.

References

External links

Natural History Museum Lepidoptera genus database
Crambidae genera Pyraustinae Monotypic moth genera Moths described in 1842 Moths of Asia Moths of Europe Moths of North America Taxa named by Eduard Friedrich Eversmann Taxa named by Edward Meyrick {{Pyraustinae-stub