Clothes Moths

University Of SULAIMANI College Of Science

Department: BIOLOGY

Peshawa Yasin Second stage Group –B -

Practical Entomology

Overview

• Clothes Moth, common name for any of several related moth species that in the larval stage eat cotton, silk, wool and other natural fibers, damaging clothes, carpets, furs, and fabrics.

• The most common species is the webbing clothes moth, and the case-making clothes moth.

Classification:

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Lepidoptera

Family: Tineidae

Genus: Tineola

Species: T. bisselliella

Clothes Moth

Order: Lepidoptera - Butterflies and Moths

• They have two pairs of wings covered with tiny scales.

• Mouthpart is siphoning (feed on nectar).

• The Lepidoptera is one of the two or three largest orders of insects, with an estimated (174,250) named species (2007).

• Butterflies and moths are among the best-known insects of this order.

• Like other holometabolous insects, lepidopteranspass through egg, larval, pupal, and adult stages.

Family: Tineidae - Clothes Moths

• They lack bipectination of the male antennae.

• Proboscis is short (or absent).

• The cosmopolitan Tineidae (3000 species) (2005) includes the clothes moths Tineola biselliella and a case-bearing species Tinea pellionella .

• Some are capable of digesting wool, including several cosmopolitan species that feed on woolen clothes and other manmade products. Others are primarily fungus-feeders.

Clothes moth

Webbing: Tineola bisselliella

• It is uniformly pale golden in color.

• There are no spots present.

• The larva spins silk which it leaves as a tunnel or sheet of webbing across the attached material.

Case-Making: Tinea pellionella

• Slightly darker brown .

• Three dark spots on each front wing.

• The larva spins a cocoon around itself, then uses it to pupate.

Case-Making: Tinea pellionellaWebbing: Tineola bisselliella

Clothes moth

Webbing Clothes MothTineola bisselliella (Hummel)

Webbing Clothes MothTineola bisselliella (Hummel)

Holometabolous Metamorphosis

Tineola bisselliella:

• Eggs can be laid singly or in groups by both virgin and mated females.

• Size: 0.5mm long and 0.3mm wide.

• The long soft ovipositor is extended and inserted into a space to test its suitability before laying an egg, usually among the fibers of fabric or particles of other food materials.

• Eggs are white, soft and circular in shape.

Tineola bisselliella:

• Polypod larva.

• Color: Yellowish brown head, with white body.

• Size: When fully grown, it reaches 8mm long and 2mm broad.

• The mouth parts are modified for biting food and for spinning silk.

• There are no ocelli

present on the head.

Tineola bisselliella:

Pupa has coccon.

The size of the pupa is usually in the range 6mm in length and 1mm wide.

The tips of the appendages are free from the body.

The posterior abdominal segments are mobile and will wave about when touched.

Tineola bisselliella:

• Size: 5 to 8mm with a wingspan of 9-16 mm.

• Antennae: Filiform.

• All legs are walking leg.

• Wings are covered with scales (Scaly wing).

• Adults do not feed, but they fly to find food materials on which they lay 40 to 150 eggs.

Tineola bisselliella:

• Upright tuft of hairs on the head is coppery to reddish-gold color.

• Males are the fliers, whereas females walk.▫ Adults are negatively

phototactic and will usually fly or crawl to a darkened area to hide away from light as rapidly as possible.

• Clothing Moth Traps can help.

• Vacuuming is another method since moths like to hide in carpeting and baseboards.

• Using Insecticide Sprays.

• Books: Neil A. Campbell, and Jane B. Reece, (2008). Biology. 8th ed. Pearson

Benjamin Cummings, Inc. USA. 1465 pp. Vincent H. Resh, Ring t. Cardé, (2003). Encyclopedia of Insects. 1st ed. Elsevier

Science. USA. 1266 pp. Gillott, Cedric. (2005). Entomology. 3rd ed. Springer, Netherlands. 831 pp. Arthur V. Evans, Rosser W. Garrison, (2003).Grzimek’s Animal Life

Encyclopedia, 2nd ed. 3rd vol. Schlager group Inc. Canada. 472 pp.

• Article: P.D. Cox, D.B. Pinniger. (2007). Biology, behaviour and environmentally

sustainable control of Tineola bisselliella. Stored Products Research, 43: 2–32.

• Website: Colorado state university extensions:

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05599.pdf