Prays oleae

Olive moth
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Plutellidae
Genus: Prays
Species: P. oleae
Binomial name
Prays oleae
Bernard, 1788
Synonyms
  • Prays oleella (Fabricius, 1794)
  • Prays adspersella Herrich-Schäffer, 1855

Prays oleae (olive moth) is a moth of the Plutellidae family. It is found in Southern Europe (the Mediterranean region) and North Africa.

The wingspan is 11–15 mm.

The larvae are a pest on Olea europaea. Other recorded food plants include Phillyrea, jasmine and Ligustrum. They mine the leaves of their host plant. The mine initially consists of an upper-surface, short, narrow corridor. Later, in early spring, it may abandon this mine and create an irregular full depth blotch elsewhere on the leaf, or it may continue the corridor into a blotch. Most frass is ejected through a hole in the mine. Part of this frass is captured in spinning at the leaf underside.[1]

References

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