Overview
The cosmopolitan pest-species
Plutella
xylostella
(Talekor and Griggs 1986) skeletonises the foliage of Brassicaceae, both cultivated and native.
Leuroperna
sera
, widely distributed in the Old World, also feeds on Brassicaceae.
Description
Small; head with smooth or roughened lamellar scales on vertex, appressed lamellar scales on frons; ocelli present; chaetosemata absent; antennae with pecten, filiform; proboscis present; maxillary palps 4-segmented, porrect; labial palps porrect or ascending, often with projecting tuft on 2nd segment; epiphysis present; spurs 0-2-4; fore wing with pterostigma to R
2
, R
4
and R
5
separate, CuA
1
and CuA
2
separate, connate or stalked; hind wing as broad as or broader than fore wing; abdomen without dorsal spines, segment 8 in male with pair of coremata; tegumen reduced; female lamella postvaginalis reduced, of 2 small setose lobes. Larval body densely spinulose, pinacula distinct, L1 and L2 approximate on meso- and metathorax, widely separate on abdominal segments 1-8; crochets uniserial, in complete or broken circle, sometimes partly biserial; in slight web on leaves, pupation in open-mesh cocoon. Pupal segment 10 bearing more than 16 hooked setae.