Pyralidae

62.068 Dried Fruit Moth Cadra calidella (Guenée, 1845)

Adventive

Similar species:

Forewing: 8 to 12mm

Habitats: Synanthropic. Dried food warehouses.

Habits: The moth is occasionally found in warehouses. It is nocturnal.

Foodplant: The larva feeds from a silk gallery while tunnelling within carob pods, dried dates, other dried fruit and cork. It also feeds amongst nuts and beans and dried vegetable matter and sometimes animal material. The full-fed larva will usually overwinter in a cocoon, but some just cling to the spinning. It overwinters in or close to the food source if the temperature is low enough. It pupates in the cocoon in the spring.