[PCA] re: new Cactoblastis moth information sheet

[Jonathan Mawdsley]

Alma Solis at the USDA-ARS Systematic Entomology Lab and colleagues have produced a new information sheet on the cactus moth, Cactoblastis cactorum, which includes excellent color pictures of adults, larvae, larval feeding damage, and egg clusters.   

This moth, a voracious feeder on cacti in the genus Opuntia, was first reported from the Florida Keys in 1989 and is now found from Folly Island, South Carolina, on the Atlantic coast to St. George Island, Florida, on the Gulf coast.  At current rates of population growth, the moth is expected to reach Texas by 2007 and then spread into the western states and Mexico.

USDA researchers in Florida will not be able to track the westward spread of the moth beyond Florida due to budgetary constraints and lack of a research mandate for this species.  They are asking for assistance from amateur entomologists and others to report new populations of the moth along the Gulf coast.  The factsheet describing the moth and its spread is available as a free download from the Web at:

http://www.esb.utexas.edu/philjs/news/pdf/CactusMoth.pdf 

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Jonathan R. Mawdsley, Ph.D. 
Manager of Project Administration
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
1120 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 900
Washington, DC 20036 USA

Phone: (202) 857-0166
Fax: (202) 857-0162
E-mail: jonathan.mawdsley at nfwf.org
Web: www.nfwf.org