Melittia cucurbitae

TaxID: 655047

Basic Information

Melittia cucurbitae

Squash Vine Borer

The squash vine borer (Melittia cucurbitae) is a diurnal species of sesiid moth. The moth is often mistaken for a bee or wasp because of its movements, and the bright orange hind leg scales. The females typically lay their eggs at the base of leaf stalks, and the caterpillars develop and feed inside the stalk, eventually killing the leaf. They soon migrate to the main stem, and with enough feeding damage to the stem, the entire plant may die. For this reason, it is considered a pest that attacks cultivated varieties of squash, zucchini, pumpkin, and acorn squash. The squash vine borer is native to North America, with some reports as far south as Brazil and Argentina. It lives in most temperate North American states, except the Pacific coast. Southern states have two broods a year.

from Wikipedia

Taxonomic Information

Metazoa

Arthropoda

Insecta

Lepidoptera

Sesiidae

Melittia

cucurbitae

unclassified

Photos (5 photos)

Melittia cucurbitae
c
(c) TheBugWhisperer@BY-NC
Melittia cucurbitae
c
(c) Dave Wendelken@BY-NC
Melittia cucurbitae
c
(c) Katja Schulz@BY
Melittia cucurbitae
c
(c) Serena Lynne@BY-NC
Melittia cucurbitae
c
(c) matthew_wills@BY-NC

Morphological Features

No morphological description available.

Host Plants (0 host plants)

Data sources: EPPO Global Database and relevant literature.

No host plants available.

Quarantine Status (2 records)

Data sources: IPPC website and national quarantine websites; verified by human review.

Country Status Year Added
Panama Quarantine pests —
United States of America Quarantine pests —

Distribution (0 countries)

Data Sources: EPPO Global Database and GBIF.

0
Present
0
Absent
0
Unknown/Other

No distribution records available.

Genomes (0 records)

Data source: NCBI.

No genome records available.

Transcriptomes (0 records)

Data source: NCBI.

No transcriptome records available.

DNA Barcodes (0 records)

View all

Data source: BOLD.

No DNA barcode records available.

Literature