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Tuesday, July 10, 2007

(AUSTRALIAN) LIGHT BROWN APPLE MOTH

This wee beastie (no bigger, at its biggest than 2cm, so a micromoth) is the Light Brown Apple Moth, native to Australia, and commonly referred to as the "Light Brown Everything Moth", because of its voracious appetite and indiscriminate habits when it comes to selecting its food plants.

It was accidentally introduced to the UK in the 1930s, in Cornwall, and has since spread pretty-well everywhere, breeding very quickly, and eating everything in its path.

The females will lay hundreds of eggs as little as 6 days after pupating themselves, and their lifespan lasts not much more than a few weeks in most cases.

This moth is a problem. A real problem in the wine-growing regions of California, where it is estimated that this species of moth has cost the large vineyards millions and millions of dollars.

I photographed it in the garden this evening, after chasing it from the potato plants onto the Bindweed above the compost heap. It had better stay there!

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