Duponchelia moth

A pest in your ornamentals that is hard to control? That will be the Duponchelia moth Duponchelia fovealis that originates in Southeast-Europe and many greenhouse crops in Western Europe and North-America. The caterpillars affect different crops and cause severe damage in ornamentals such as Kalanchoe, begonia and cyclamen. The Duponchelia moth prefers dense crops so that they can hide easily. That’s what makes this species so hard to control. Luckily, you can rely on biological control to help you out.

What damage can the Duponchelia moth cause?

• The caterpillars search for spots with a high humidity and can be found at the bottom of the plant or in the center.
• They cause feeding damage to the plant foot, the root neck and the leaves. They also bore into the stem.
• In potted plants the roots can also be eaten.
• Damaged plants wilt and mould diseases enter the plants through the wounds.

How to control the Duponchelia moth?

To monitor adult moths, you can rely on pheromone traps such as the Delta Trap^®.

For biological control of the larvae in the substrate, you can introduce:

• Beneficial nematodes such as Carpocapsae-System.
• For eggs and young larvae you can also use:
• Soil dwelling predatory mites such as Hypoaspis-System;
• Soil dwelling rove beetles such as Atheta-System.

What are the characteristics of the Duponchelia moth?

• The eggs are 0.5 mm long and can be found at the bottom of the leaves or near the veins at the bottom of the stalk.
• The larvae are 20 to 30 mm long, shiny and cream-coloured with a dark head and brown, round dorsal spots on their body. They are hidden in the crop.
• The pupae are in a cocoon of 15 to 20 mm long covered with ground particles.
• The moths have a good flight capacity thanks to which they can spread easily into your crop.
• The adults are light to dark brown with cream-coloured stripes on their abdomen, which is curved upwards.
• Their wings have a span of 9 to 12 mm with a white and coiling stripe on it.

What about the Duponchelia moth’s life cycle?

• Fertilized females lay up to 200 eggs.
• After about 8 days the caterpillars hatch out of the eggs.
• After 4 weeks the caterpillars are full-grown and pupate.
• The pupal stage takes 1 to 2 weeks.
• Adult moths live 1 up to 2 weeks.