Cactoblastis Berg
Richard L. Brown1, Sangmi Lee1, and Kristen Sauby2
1Mississippi Entomological Museum
Mississippi State University
2Department of Biological Sciences
Mississippi State University
Last updated: July 3, 2009
Synonymy and Types
Cactoblastis Ragonot, 1901, Mém. sur les Lépid., 8: 15. Type species: Zophodia cactorum Berg, 1885. By monotypy.
Neopyralis Brèthes, 1920, Ann. Soc. Rural Argentina, 54: 284. Type species: Neopyralis ronnai Brèthes, 1920. Original Designation.
Diagnostic Characters
Adult
Antenna simple in both sexes; proboscis somewhat reduced; labial palpus ascending in male, porrect in female; maxillary palpus scaled and appearing fan-like; male genitalia with apical process of gnathos partially fused, prongs separated for only a short distance, juxta with lateral elements long, finely serrate on outer edges; female genitalia with signum in form of a series of fused plates, ductus seminalis originating from corpus bursae at juncture of ductus bursae and corpus bursae.
Larva: Body bright orange or red, with rows of large black spots or broken crossbands; Abdominal segments seven and eight with two SV setae.
Larval Hosts
Distribution
Species
bucyrus Dyar
cactorum (Berg)
doddi Heinrich
mundelli Heinrich
ronnai (Brèthes)