Lesser wax moth

Lesser wax moth
	Adult specimen
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Pyralidae
Genus:	Achroia
Species:	A. grisella
Binomial name
	Achroia grisella; (Fabricius, 1794)
Synonyms
	Achroia alvearia( lapsus ); Achroia major(Dufrane, 1930); Achroia obscurevittellaRagonot, 1901; Acroia major(lapsus); Bombyx cinereolaHübner, 1802; Galleria alueariaFabricius, 1798; Galleria alveaHaworth, 1811 (unjustified emendation); Galleria alvearia(lapsus); Meliphora alveariellaGuenée, 1845 (unjustified emendation); Tinea anticellaWalker, 1863; Tinea grisellaFabricius, 1794;

Last updated December 05, 2024 • 10 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

The lesser wax moth (Achroia grisella) is a small moth of the snout moth family (Pyralidae) that belongs to the subfamily Galleriinae. The species was first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1794. Adults are about 0.5 inches (13 mm) in length and have a distinct yellow head with a silver-grey or beige body.^[2]^[3] Lesser wax moths are common in most parts of the world, except in areas with cold climates. Their geographic spread was aided by humans who inadvertently introduced them to many regions worldwide.^[1]^[4]^[5]

The mating systems of the lesser wax moth are well researched because they involve sound production. Lesser wax males produce ultrasonic pulses in order to attract females.^[6] Females seek the most attractive males and base their decisions on characteristics of the male sound.^[7] While sex pheromones are also emitted by the males, male calling is more effective in attracting mates.^[8]

Because lesser wax moths eat unoccupied honey bee combs, they are considered pests to bees and beekeepers. However, unoccupied combs can harbor harmful pathogens that inflict damage to neighboring insects. By eating the combs, the moths can reduce the harm to insects of that region and provide a clean space for other organisms to inhabit.^[9]

Geographic range

Lesser wax moths are known or suspected to inhabit most of Africa (including Madagascar), Australia, Europe (especially some more remote regions, such as Greece) and North America, as well as parts of the Neotropics (such as Colombia, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Trinidad), the Bengal region, Japan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, and the Marquesas Islands and Tahiti in French Polynesia.^[1]^[5]^[4]

Climate

Lesser wax moths are found everywhere that honey bees are present, but they are more successful in warmer, tropical areas than in colder climates. Although they cannot live in freezing temperatures for an extended period, they are more successful in lower temperatures than the related greater wax moth.^[9]

Food resources

Larvae diet

Feeding occurs only during the larval life stage. Larvae feed on weak bee colonies. Therefore, the amount of food that the larvae can eat depends on the amount of material that the bee colony produced, as well as the number of moth generations that have persisted on the same comb since the initial infestation began.^[10] Larvae move through the bee comb and spin silk tunnels. They cover the silk with their frass. Tunneling through honeycombs not only provides food, but also protects the larvae from the defending worker bees.^[4]^[11] The larvae prefer to eat honey bee larvae, pupae, and pollen, but will also feed on honey.^[9]^[10] Unusual foods that larvae can feed on are dried vegetable remains, dried fruits (especially apples and raisins), horn shavings (an organic fertilizer), cork, and even refined sugar.^[4]^[11] Sometimes greater wax moths can be found in the same comb as lesser wax moths. In these cases, the greater wax moths will compete with the lesser wax moths for the best feeding regions of the comb. In general, the greater wax moth is victorious and the lesser wax larvae are forced to feed on the hive floor.^[9]

Parental care

Oviposition

Females deposit their eggs in crevices in or near bee hives so that a food source will be close to the emerging larvae. When a female has found an acceptable spot, she extends her body into the crevice and then lays her eggs. A female lays on average 250-300 eggs in her lifetime.^[9]^[12]

Life history

Egg

The eggs are similar to those of greater wax moths. They are spherical and creamy white in color. Eggs hatch in about five to eight days but warmer temperatures shorten the hatching time.^[9]

Larvae

Larvae take on average six to seven weeks to fully develop, but they can take up to five months. They reach about 20 mm in length and have narrow white bodies with a brown head. This is the only life stage in which lesser wax moths eat.^[9]

Pupa

The pupae are 11 mm in length and are a yellow tan color. The silk cocoon is white but is usually covered with frass. On average, the adults emerge after 37 days, but pupation can take up to 2 months.^[9]

Adult

Adults are a silver, grey, or beige with a yellow head. They are thin and are 0.5 inches in length with a wingspan of 0.5 inches.^[13]^[14] Males tend to be smaller than females.

Adults live for about a week and most of their activity, including female oviposition and mating, occurs at night.^[9] Males can be seen in their mating position anywhere between six and ten hours in a single night.^[15] During the day, the adults hide in foliage close to bee hives.^[9]

Larvae
Pupa
Adult female

Enemies

Predators

In order to attract mates, male lesser wax moths stay in a stationary position and emit a high-frequency sound. Bats, such as Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, can hear this sound.^[7] Thus, both the male's high-frequency calling and its stationary position leave it vulnerable to attacks by bats. Even though the bats do not exist in some of the areas where moths are currently found, the lesser wax moth has retained its evolutionary mode of defense from its native land.^[16]

Defense

The bat calling sound is a long and slowly repeating signal.^[16] If males hear the call of an approaching bat or a similar sound, they will stop their mate calling.^[7]^[16] The males will remain silent for several milliseconds to more than a minute. More sexually attractive males, those with higher single pulse pair rates and amplitudes, experience a higher risk of predation because they resume mate calling sooner than less attractive males. This may occur because the attractive males are better equipped to escape from bats, thus decreasing the apparently high risk. Another theory is that risk taking could be a sexually selected trait.^[7] Females can decipher between the moth calling and the bat calling sound. During mate calling, females fan their wings. However, when they hear the bat's sound, they stop fanning their wings. In order to avoid being captured by bats, the moths fly erratically, fall to the ground, or fly away from the source of the sound.^[16]

Mating

Mate searching behavior

In the lesser wax moth species, the males engage in signaling behavior while the females engage in searching roles.^[17]

Pheromones

Lesser wax male moths emit a sex pheromone that is made up of two components: n-undecanal and cis-11-n-octadecenal.^[16]^[18] The pheromone is released from wing glands.^[16] It is attractive to females over long distances, but the pheromones alone are not sufficient to generate mating behaviors.^[8]^[16]^[17]^[18] When males are under attack by bats, they stop producing calling sounds but will continue emitting the pheromone.^[16]

Sound

The lesser wax moth mating system is based on sound. Experiments have shown that sounds from a speaker are able to elicit the same attractive result from females as live males that release both sound and pheromones. Males emit short ultrasonic pulses with a high frequency of 100 kHz and an intensity of 93 dB. The signal of the sound can differ significantly between males. For example, there can be a 15 dB range in peak amplitude between males in the same population.^[17] The male calling characteristics may be genetic and inherited.^[10] Pulse amplitude is also positively correlated to a male moth's weight.^[8]

Effects of temperature

Components of the male ultrasonic pulses are genetically based, but environmental temperature can affect the specific genotype's performance.^[19] As temperature increases, a lesser wax moth male's pulse rate increases and the female's acceptance threshold for rates increases. These changes most likely occur due to physiological effects, but the increase in pulse rate and acceptance threshold may also be used to avoid predation. Additionally, the increase in female acceptance threshold allows them to continue choosing the most attractive male by not mistaking a low-quality male for high-quality due to his new, faster pulse rate.^[20]

Mate choice

Although pheromones alone do not cause a female to move towards a male for mating, odor, signal location, and male-male interactions may play a role in male attractiveness.^[8] Females mainly select males based on the characteristics of their call. Females prefer males with a fast pulse pair rate, high peak song amplitude, and large wing beat asynchrony.^[7] This preference may be evolutionary, with signal quality being an indicator of a male's gene quality.^[17] Because female choice occurs between aggregated males at leks, they assess a male's call in relation to his neighbors. In other words, at leks, the relative threshold sounds are determinate of male attractiveness rather than absolute threshold. If an individual is in a group of males with high quality sounds, their individual relative attractiveness decreases. There also seems to be some variation in female preference. Because some signal characteristics are heritable, female preference could lead to evolutionary changes in mate calling.^[8]

Lekking

Sexual selection occurs near honey bee colonies. The males will group together on grass or leaves near the colony where they spent most of their life.^[7]^[8]^[16] These leks are small and occur in the night.^[7] Because the moths are close together in the leks, some males will purposely run into stationary neighbors who are in the process of signaling in order to move them.^[18] Additionally, studies have been conducted that show these moths increase their signal rate when having to compete with others for a local female, but due to the physical demands of an increased signal rate, its duration typically lasts only five to ten minutes. It has been concluded that these are the most prevalent few minutes of the entire six to ten hours spent active each night.^[15]

Physiology

Hearing

Sound generation

Males produce ultrasonic pulses to attract mates. The sound is produced by a tymbal on each tegula, which covers the forewing.^[6] The left and right tymbals emit pulses slightly asynchronously.^[17] In order for sound production to occur, the tegula has to be raised and the wings have to be fanned at a 45° arc.^[6] A pair of asynchronous pulses are produced during each up and down stroke of the wings.^[17] The pulses of sound have a frequency of 100 kHz which is in the middle of the moth's hearing range (20–200 kHz).^[6]

Interactions with humans

Pest of beekeepers

Bald brood

A disorder called bald brood occurs in hives infested by lesser wax moths. When feeding on the comb, larvae tunnel under capped cells containing honey bee pupae. This movement causes the caps to become defective. The worker bees will then remove the defective caps. The name bald brood refers to the remaining uncapped cells that reveal the residing pupa.^[9]

Prevention

In order to prevent a lesser wax moth infestation in honey bee hives, beekeepers must maintain healthy, functioning hives. In healthy hives, workers will remove defective bee larvae and quickly seal up the cell that had contained the larvae. In this way, moths are unable to lay eggs in the vacant cells. If the hives become weak, the workers may not be able to close vacant cells, leaving the hive open to infestation. Therefore, stored combs that do not have any worker bees are highly susceptible to attacks by the lesser wax moths.^[9]

Control

Temperature regulation

Temperature can play a crucial role in lesser wax larvae activity and survival. At 37 °F (3 °C), the larvae can survive but they become less active. Larvae cannot survive in freezing temperatures. In order to ensure that hive products are safe for humans to consume, beekeepers can freeze the hives for one to two days at 20 °F (−7 °C). Extreme heat (114 °F (46 °C)) can also be used to kill larvae, but combs are susceptible to melting at similar high temperatures.^[9]

Fumigation

Different chemicals can be used to kill lesser wax larvae, but many of them can be harmful to both the comb and humans. For example, carbon monoxide is effective in killing the larvae and the comb is left unharmed, but it is toxic to the person administering the fumes.^[9]

Bacillus thuringiensis

Bacillus thuringiensis is a microbial insecticide. When consumed, it is lethal to lesser wax larvae. However, bees are immune to the insecticide's harmful effects because even if the bees ingest the wax, they cannot digest the pesticide. When a powder containing B. thuringiensis is mixed with beeswax present in bee combs, the lesser wax moth is killed and the bees remained unharmed. While a B. thuringiensis-infused liquid can also be used, the powder is more effective and remains protective to bee combs for two years.^[21]

Related Research Articles

A honey bee is a eusocial flying insect within the genus Apis of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosmopolitan distribution of honey bees, introducing multiple subspecies into South America, North America, and Australia.

Beekeeping is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in artificial beehives. Honey bees in the genus Apis are the most commonly kept species but other honey producing bees such as Melipona stingless bees are also kept. Beekeepers keep bees to collect honey and other products of the hive: beeswax, propolis, bee pollen, and royal jelly. Other sources of beekeeping income include pollination of crops, raising queens, and production of package bees for sale. Bee hives are kept in an apiary or "bee yard".

A queen bee is typically an adult, mated female (gyne) that lives in a colony or hive of honey bees. With fully developed reproductive organs, the queen is usually the mother of most, if not all, of the bees in the beehive. Queens are developed from larvae selected by worker bees and specially fed in order to become sexually mature. There is normally only one adult, mated queen in a hive, in which case the bees will usually follow and fiercely protect her.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waxworm</span> Caterpillar larvae of wax moths

Waxworms are the caterpillar larvae of wax moths, which belong to the family Pyralidae. Two closely related species are commercially bred – the lesser wax moth and the greater wax moth. They belong to the tribe Galleriini in the snout moth subfamily Galleriinae. Another species whose larvae share that name is the Indianmeal moth, though this species is not available commercially.

The ghost moth or ghost swift is a moth of the family Hepialidae. It is common throughout Europe, except for the far south-east.

Aethina tumida,commonly known as small hive beetle (SHB), is a beekeeping pest. It is native to sub-Saharan Africa, but has spread to many other regions, including North America, Australia, and the Philippines.

The Indianmeal moth, also spelled Indian meal moth and Indian-meal moth, is a pyraloid moth of the family Pyralidae. Alternative common names are hanger-downers, weevil moth, pantry moth, flour moth or grain moth. The almond moth and the raisin moth are commonly confused with the Indian-meal moth due to similar food sources and appearance. The species was named for feeding on Indian meal or cornmeal, and does not occur natively in India. It is also not to be confused with the Mediterranean flour moth, another common pest of stored grains.

A tympanal organ is a hearing organ in insects, consisting of a tympanal membrane (tympanum) stretched across a frame backed by an air sac and associated sensory neurons. Sounds vibrate the membrane, and the vibrations are sensed by a chordotonal organ. Hymenoptera do not have a tympanal organ, but they do have a Johnston's organ.

The Mediterranean flour moth or mill moth is a moth of the family Pyralidae. It is a common pest of cereal grains, especially flour. This moth is found throughout the world, especially in countries with temperate climates. It prefers warm temperatures for more rapid development, but it can survive a wide range of temperatures.

The European corn borer, also known as the European corn worm or European high-flyer, is a moth of the family Crambidae. It is a pest of grain, particularly maize. The insect is native to Europe, originally infesting varieties of millet, including broom corn. The European corn borer was first reported in North America in 1917 in Massachusetts, but was probably introduced from Europe several years earlier. Since its initial discovery in the Americas, the insect has spread into Canada and westwards across the United States to the Rocky Mountains.

"The Mother Hive" is a short story or fable by Rudyard Kipling about the decline and destruction of a hive of bees. It was first published in Collier's Weekly in the US on 28 November 1908. Later in December of the same year, it was published in the Windsor Magazine in the UK with a title of the "Adventures of Melissa".

The western honey bee or European honey bee is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bees worldwide. The genus name Apis is Latin for 'bee', and mellifera is the Latin for 'honey-bearing' or 'honey-carrying', referring to the species' production of honey.

Aphomia sociella, also known as the bee moth and the bumble bee wax moth, is a small moth of the family Pyralidae and subfamily Galleriinae. Its body and forewings are typically reddish brown, tan, or dark green in color and females have a dark spot in the center of each forewing. The bee moth is native to Europe and are named "bee moths" because they seek out nests of bees and wasps to lay their eggs. Aphomiasociella are considered a pest because the bee moth larvae severely damage commercial bee hives. Bee moths are also studied for their unique mating ritual which includes a release of pheromones from both the male and the female along with an ultrasonic signal emitted through the male's tymbals.

Galleria mellonella, the greater wax moth or honeycomb moth, is a moth of the family Pyralidae. G. mellonella is found throughout the world. It is one of two species of wax moths, with the other being the lesser wax moth. G. mellonella eggs are laid in the spring, and they have four life stages. Males are able to generate ultrasonic sound pulses, which, along with pheromones, are used in mating. The larvae of G. mellonella are also often used as a model organism in research.

The tymbal is the corrugated exoskeletal structure used to produce sounds in insects. In male cicadas, the tymbals are membranes in the abdomen, responsible for the characteristic sound produced by the insect. In tiger moths, the tymbals are modified regions of the thorax and produce high-frequency clicks. In lesser wax moths the left and right tymbals emit high-frequency pulses that are used as mating calls.

Utetheisa ornatrix, also called the ornate bella moth, ornate moth, bella moth or rattlebox moth, is a moth of the subfamily Arctiinae. It is aposematically colored ranging from pink, red, orange and yellow to white coloration with black markings arranged in varying patterns on its wings. It has a wingspan of 33–46 mm. Moths reside in temperate midwestern and eastern North America as well as throughout Mexico and other parts of Central America. Unlike most moths, the bella moth is diurnal. Formerly, the bella moth or beautiful utetheisa of temperate eastern North America was separated as Utetheisa bella. Now it is united with the bella moth in Utetheisa ornatrix.

Cadra figulilella, the raisin moth, is a moth of the family Pyralidae. The raisin moth is known most commonly as a pest that feeds on dried fruits, such as the raisin and date. It covers a range that includes much of the world, primarily situating itself in areas of California, Florida, the Eastern Mediterranean region, and some parts of Africa, Australia, and South America. The moth prefers to live in a hot, arid climate with little moisture and plentiful harvest for its larvae to feed on. Study of this species is important due to the vast amount of economic damage it causes yearly and worldwide to agriculture crops.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galleriinae</span> Subfamily of moths

The Galleriinae are a subfamily of snout moths and occur essentially worldwide, in some cases aided by involuntary introduction by humans. This subfamily includes the wax moths, whose caterpillars (waxworms) are bred on a commercial scale as food for pets and as fishing bait; in the wild, these and other species of Galleriinae may also be harmful to humans as pests.

Ostrinia scapulalis, the adzuki bean borer or adzuki bean worm, is a species of moth in the family Crambidae. It was described by Francis Walker in 1859. It is one of 20 moths in the genus Ostrinia and is of Eurasian origin. The larvae have a gray mid-dorsal line and can be light pink or beige. The adult adzuki bean borer has a yellowish-brown forewing with jagged lines and variable darker shading, with a wingspan that ranges from 20 to 32 mm. The moths of this species are nocturnal and tend to be attracted to light.

Ostrinia furnacalis is a species of moth in the family Crambidae, the grass moths. It was described by Achille Guenée in 1854 and is known by the common name Asian corn borer since this species is found in Asia and feeds mainly on corn crop. The moth is found from China to Australia, including in Java, Sulawesi, the Philippines, Borneo, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Micronesia. The Asian corn borer is part of the species complex, Ostrinia, in which members are difficult to distinguish based on appearance. Other Ostrinia such as O. orientalis, O. scapulalis, O. zealis, and O. zaguliaevi can occur with O. furnacalis, and the taxa can be hard to tell apart.

References

1 2 3 Savela, Markku. "Achroia grisella (Fabricius, 1794)". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
↑ "Lesser Wax Moth". University of Florida.
↑ lepiforum.de includes images This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
1 2 3 4 Clarke, John Frederick Gates (1986). "Pyralidae and Microlepidoptera of the Marquesas Archipelago". Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology. 416 (416): 1–485. doi:10.5479/si.00810282.416.
1 2 "Fauna Europaea".
1 2 3 4 Spangler, Hayward G.; Takessian, Alex (1986). "Further Observations on Sound Production by the Lesser Wax Moth, Achroia grisella (F.) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)". Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society. 59 (3): 555–557.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Cordes, Nils; Engqvist, Leif; Schmoll, Tim; Reinhold, Klaus (2014). "Sexual signaling under predation: attractive moths take the greater risks". Behavioral Ecology. 25 (2): 409–414. doi: 10.1093/beheco/art128 .
1 2 3 4 5 6 Jang, Yikweon; Greenfield, Michael D. (1998). "Absolute verses relative measurements of sexual selection: assessing the contributions of ultrasonic signal characters to mate attraction in lesser wax moths, Achroia grisella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)". Evolution. 52 (5): 1383–1393. doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.1998.tb02020.x . PMID 28565373. S2CID 30141562.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Egelie, Ashley A.; Mortensen, Ashley N.; Barber, Lynn; Sullivan, Jessica; Ellis, James D. "University of Florida".
1 2 3 Zhou, Yihong; Kuster, Heidi K.; Pettis, Jeffrey S.; Danka, Robert G.; Gleason, Jennifer M.; Greenfield, Michael D. (2008). "Reaction norm variants for male calling song in populations of Achroia grisella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae): toward a resolution of the lek paradox". Evolution. 62 (6): 1317–34. doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2008.00371.x . PMID 18346222. S2CID 17499218.^{[ permanent dead link ‍]}
1 2 Grabe, Albert. "Eigenartige Geschmacksrichtungen bei Kleinschmetterlingsraupen [Strange tastes among micromoth caterpillars]". Zeitschrift des Wiener Entomologen-Vereins. 27: 105–109.
↑ "COLOSS".
↑ Parsons, M. Clancey, C. 2023 A Guide to the Pyralid and Crambid Moths of Britain and Ireland Atropos Publishing ISBN: 9780955108648
↑ Goater, B., Dyke . G. and Tweedie, R. 1986 British Pyralid Moths: A Guide to Their Identification ISBN 10: 0946589089 ISBN 13: 9780946589081
1 2 Jia, Feng-You; Greenfield, Michael D.; Collins, Robert D. (2001). "Ultrasonic Signal Competition Between Male Wax Moths". Journal of Insect Behavior. 14 (1): 19–33. doi:10.1023/A:1007893411662. S2CID 2391275.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Spangler, Hayward G. (1984). "Silence as a defense against predatory bats in two species of calling insects". The Southwestern Naturalist. 29 (4): 481–488. doi:10.2307/3671001. JSTOR 3671001.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Jang, Yikweon; Greenfield, Michael D. (1996). "Ultrasonic communication and sexual selection in wax moths: female choice based on energy and asynchrony of male signals". Animal Behaviour. 51 (5): 1095–1106. doi:10.1006/anbe.1996.0111. S2CID 53174298.
1 2 3 Greenfield, Michael D. (1981). "Moth Sex Pheromones: An Evolutionary Perspective". The Florida Entomologist. 64 (1): 4–17. doi:10.2307/3494597. JSTOR 3494597.
↑ Ingleby, F.C.; Hunt, J.; Hosken, D.J. (2010). "The role of genotype-by-environment interactions in sexual selection". Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 23 (10): 2031–2045. doi: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2010.02080.x . PMID 20722891.
↑ Greenfield, Michael D.; Medlock, Chelsea (2007). "Temperature coupling as an emergent property: parallel thermal effects on male song and female response do not contribute to species recognition in an acoustic moth". Evolution. 61–7 (7): 1590–1599. doi:10.1111/j.1558-5646.2007.00140.x. PMID 17598742. S2CID 22700544.
↑ Burges, H.D.; Bailey, L. (1968). "Control of the Greater and Lesser Wax Moths (Galleria mellonella and Achroia grisella) with Bacillus thuringiensis". Journal of Invertebrate Pathology. 11 (2): 184–195. doi:10.1016/0022-2011(68)90148-1. PMID 5672009.