Pyralis pictalis
Encyclopedia
The Painted Meal Moth or Poplar Pyralis (Pyralis pictalis) is a snout moth (family
(Pyralidae). It is closely related to the family's type species
the Meal Moth (P. farinalis) and consequently belongs to the tribe
Pyralini
of the snout moth subfamily Pyralinae
. Its native range is tropical Asia
to East Asia
and to the Wallacea
and adjacent regions, but it has been quite widely (though involuntarily) distributed by humans. The term "Poplar" in its common name does not refer to the trees, but to Poplar, London
, where type specimen – from such an introduction – was caught. It was called Scarce Meal Moth in the original description, which is only correct for the fringes of its range however.
While the caterpillar
s of this moth are most notable as a stored-food pest, they may themselves be useful for biological pest control
as under certain conditions they will eat other insects' eggs.
. Presumably, the Painted Meal Moth natively ranged from southern India
and Sri Lanka
northeastwards to Japan
and southeastwards at least to Sumatra
, Java
and at least parts of Borneo
; perhaps its natural range extended as far as the Philippines
in the east, and to New Guinea
or even Fiji
in the southeast.
But the latter population, widely isolated as it seems, may just as well be a colonial era introduction, as may be the case for the records from Australia
(beyond the Wallacea
, as seen from its core range) and northwest British India (beyond the Himalayas
). In Polynesia
P. pictalis was recorded beyond Fiji from Kiribati
and from Hiva Oa
in the Marquesas Islands
, presumably fairly recent introductions. In Africa
it appears to be absent from the east, but has been found in Belgian Congo
and West Africa
, as well as in South Africa
. Finally there are of course the records from England
and other Europe
an localities; in brief, outside its contiguous range the moth mainly occurs along the historical East Indiaman trade route. However, this moth tends to occur ephemeral
ly outside its presumed core region; in temperate
and even in subtropical Europe for example the species does not seem to have established a self-sustaining population and may in fact for all practical purposes be considered absent.
of 15-34 mm. Furthermore, the base of the forewings has a lead-grey hue, and the light-bordered band in the forewing center is narrower. The caterpillar
larva
e feed on dry vegetable foods, e.g. cereal
s, occasionally causing sufficient damage to be a serious pest.
Larvae have also been recorded to eat the eggs of the bed bug Cimex hemipterus, a species known as major vector for disease (eventually determined to be hepatitis B). This must be considered when eradicating P. pictalis in a pest situation, particularly since C. hemipterus are quick to evolve
insecticide
resistance. Biological pest control
by this or another species may be feasible if the stored-food pest problem is accounted for. Considering the original data, insectivory of P. pictalis caterpillars may be a seasonal phenomenon, meaning that they would need to be deployed in numbers for a few weeks at the start of the wettest time of year, the resultant moth population immediately being suppressed or sterilized.
, one of the most prolific entomologists of the mid-late 19th century, this happened no less than three times. As a consequence, the Painted Meal Moth has a number of now-invalid junior synonyms:
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
(Pyralidae). It is closely related to the family's type species
Type species
In biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...
the Meal Moth (P. farinalis) and consequently belongs to the tribe
Tribe (biology)
In biology, a tribe is a taxonomic rank between family and genus. It is sometimes subdivided into subtribes.Some examples include the tribes: Canini, Acalypheae, Hominini, Bombini, and Antidesmeae.-See also:* Biological classification* Rank...
Pyralini
Pyralini
The Pyralini are a tribe of snout moths. They belong to the subfamily Pyralinae, which contains the "typical" snout moths of the Old World and some other regions. The genus list presented here is provisional....
of the snout moth subfamily Pyralinae
Pyralinae
The Pyralinae are the typical subfamily of snout moths and occur essentially world-wide, in some cases aided by involuntary introduction by humans. They are rather rare in the Americas however, and their diversity in the Australian region is also limited. Altogether, this subfamily includes about...
. Its native range is tropical Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
to East Asia
East Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
and to the Wallacea
Wallacea
Wallacea is a biogeographical designation for a group of Indonesian islands separated by deep water straits from the Asian and Australian continental shelves. Wallacea includes Sulawesi, the largest island in the group, as well as Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Sumba, Timor, Halmahera, Buru, Seram, and...
and adjacent regions, but it has been quite widely (though involuntarily) distributed by humans. The term "Poplar" in its common name does not refer to the trees, but to Poplar, London
Poplar, London
Poplar is a historic, mainly residential area of the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is about east of Charing Cross. Historically a hamlet in the parish of Stepney, Middlesex, in 1817 Poplar became a civil parish. In 1855 the Poplar District of the Metropolis was...
, where type specimen – from such an introduction – was caught. It was called Scarce Meal Moth in the original description, which is only correct for the fringes of its range however.
While the caterpillar
Caterpillar
Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...
s of this moth are most notable as a stored-food pest, they may themselves be useful for biological pest control
Biological pest control
Biological control of pests in agriculture is a method of controlling pests that relies on predation, parasitism, herbivory, or other natural mechanisms...
as under certain conditions they will eat other insects' eggs.
Distribution
It is not known precisely where this moth originated, but it seems to have been the general region of Southeast AsiaSoutheast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
. Presumably, the Painted Meal Moth natively ranged from southern India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
northeastwards to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and southeastwards at least to Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
, Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
and at least parts of Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
; perhaps its natural range extended as far as the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
in the east, and to New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
or even Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
in the southeast.
But the latter population, widely isolated as it seems, may just as well be a colonial era introduction, as may be the case for the records from Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
(beyond the Wallacea
Wallacea
Wallacea is a biogeographical designation for a group of Indonesian islands separated by deep water straits from the Asian and Australian continental shelves. Wallacea includes Sulawesi, the largest island in the group, as well as Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Sumba, Timor, Halmahera, Buru, Seram, and...
, as seen from its core range) and northwest British India (beyond the Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
). In Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
P. pictalis was recorded beyond Fiji from Kiribati
Kiribati
Kiribati , officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The permanent population exceeds just over 100,000 , and is composed of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres, straddling the...
and from Hiva Oa
Hiva Oa
Hiva Oa is the second largest island in the Marquesas Islands, in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. It is the largest island of the Southern Marquesas group. According to local religion, the gods created the islands as their home. Therefore all islands have...
in the Marquesas Islands
Marquesas Islands
The Marquesas Islands enana and Te Fenua `Enata , both meaning "The Land of Men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. The Marquesas are located at 9° 00S, 139° 30W...
, presumably fairly recent introductions. In Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
it appears to be absent from the east, but has been found in Belgian Congo
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...
and West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
, as well as in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. Finally there are of course the records from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and other Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an localities; in brief, outside its contiguous range the moth mainly occurs along the historical East Indiaman trade route. However, this moth tends to occur ephemeral
Ephemeral
Ephemeral things are transitory, existing only briefly. Typically the term is used to describe objects found in nature, although it can describe a wide range of things....
ly outside its presumed core region; in temperate
Temperate
In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally relatively moderate, rather than extreme hot or cold...
and even in subtropical Europe for example the species does not seem to have established a self-sustaining population and may in fact for all practical purposes be considered absent.
Description and ecology
The adults resemble the Meal Moth (P. farinalis) but are smaller, with a wingspanWingspan
The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...
of 15-34 mm. Furthermore, the base of the forewings has a lead-grey hue, and the light-bordered band in the forewing center is narrower. The caterpillar
Caterpillar
Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...
larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
e feed on dry vegetable foods, e.g. cereal
Cereal
Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
s, occasionally causing sufficient damage to be a serious pest.
Larvae have also been recorded to eat the eggs of the bed bug Cimex hemipterus, a species known as major vector for disease (eventually determined to be hepatitis B). This must be considered when eradicating P. pictalis in a pest situation, particularly since C. hemipterus are quick to evolve
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
insecticide
Insecticide
An insecticide is a pesticide used against insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against the eggs and larvae of insects respectively. Insecticides are used in agriculture, medicine, industry and the household. The use of insecticides is believed to be one of the major factors behind...
resistance. Biological pest control
Biological pest control
Biological control of pests in agriculture is a method of controlling pests that relies on predation, parasitism, herbivory, or other natural mechanisms...
by this or another species may be feasible if the stored-food pest problem is accounted for. Considering the original data, insectivory of P. pictalis caterpillars may be a seasonal phenomenon, meaning that they would need to be deployed in numbers for a few weeks at the start of the wettest time of year, the resultant moth population immediately being suppressed or sterilized.
Synonyms
Due to the species being so widely introduced outside its native range and occurring in new locales as global traffic increased, introduced populations were times and again believed to be new species. To Francis WalkerFrancis Walker (entomologist)
Francis Walker was an English entomologist. He was one of the most prolific authors in entomology, and stirred controversy during his later life as his publications resulted in a huge number of junior synonyms....
, one of the most prolific entomologists of the mid-late 19th century, this happened no less than three times. As a consequence, the Painted Meal Moth has a number of now-invalid junior synonyms:
- Asopia pictalis Curtis, 1834
- Asopia pronoealis (Walker, 1859)
- Pyralis pronoealis Walker, 1859
- Myelois bractiatella Walker, 1863
- Pyralis bractiatella (Walker, 1863)
- Pyralis elachia Butler, 1879
- Pyralis suggeralis Walker, 1866