Grapholita spp.

Status

ADVENTIVE | NATIVE

PORT INTERCEPT | DOMESTIC SURVEY

Taxonomy

Grapholita Treitschke (Tortricidae: Olethreutinae: Grapholitini)

Overview

At one point, Grapholita contained approximately 160 described species distributed worldwide. As currently circumscribed, it contains about 40 species after many of its former species were transferred to different genera following a molecular phylogeny of Grapholitini (Hu et al. 2023Hu et al. 2023:
Hu, G.-L., Brown, J.W., Heikkilä, M., Aarvik, L., Mutanen, M. 2023. Molecular phylogeny, divergence time, biogeography and trends in host plant usage in the agriculturally important tortricid tribe Grapholitini (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae: Olethreutinae). Cladistics. 39(5): 359-381.).

Adults are small (FWL 4.0–6.5 mm) and brown, usually with white markings and a well-defined ocellus. Many species have bright white costal strigulae and one or more pairs of dorsal strigulae. Male genitalia are characterized by the absence of an uncus and socii, and a well-defined, densely setose cucullus. Female genitalia are characterized by a short ductus bursae and two thorn-like signa in the corpus bursae in many species.

Most of the economically important species such as oriental fruit moth (A. molesta), cherry fruit worm (A. packardi), lesser apple worm (A. prunivora), and plum fruit moth (A. funebrana) were transferred to Aspila when the former subgenus of Grapholita was raised to full genus status (Hu et al. 2023Hu et al. 2023:
Hu, G.-L., Brown, J.W., Heikkilä, M., Aarvik, L., Mutanen, M. 2023. Molecular phylogeny, divergence time, biogeography and trends in host plant usage in the agriculturally important tortricid tribe Grapholitini (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae: Olethreutinae). Cladistics. 39(5): 359-381.). The species remaining in Grapholita generally are not major economic pests, although larvae of G. delineana can occasionally be a pest of hemp, hops, and marijuana (Cannabaceae).

The white to reddish larvae resemble those of other internally feeding olethreutines, such as Cydia and Aspila, but larvae of Grapholita and Aspila can usually be separated by the anal fork, which is present in many Grapholita and Aspila and absent in most Cydia.

Adventive species

Grapholita delineana

Native species

Grapholita interstinctana

Links

Additional photos and distribution maps for species in the United States and Canada are available at Moth Photographers Group.