Galapagos Species Database
The Galapagos Species Database shares the information about the species from our Natural History Collections.
Sitotroga cerealella
Polilla de los cereales, Grain moth
This species can be separated from the other two members of the genus as follows: S. horogramma (Meyrick, 1921) described from Fiji, has the forewing with a dark brown line along the costa, interrupted subapically, another along the terminal margin, and a small spot sometimes at 2/3 medially. Sitotroga psacasta (Meyrick, 1908), described from the Transvaal, south Africa, has brown markings on the forewing as a spot or long dash submedially on the fold, a costal spot at 2/3, and a line subterminally, parallel to termen (Landry & Roque, 2010).
Pest of grains. Larva feeds on barley, corn, rice, wheat, and other Poaceae, but also on beans and peas.
Domain
Eukaryota
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Arthropoda
Class
Insecta
Order
Lepidoptera
Superfamily
Gelechioidea
Family
Gelechiidae
Genus
Sitotroga
Species
cerealella
Taxon category: Accepted
Syn.: Alucita cerealella Olivier, 1789, fide Landry & Roque-Albelo (2010). Syn.: Sitotroga cerealella (Olivier), fide Landry & Roque-Albelo (2010).
Origin: Introduced - established
Year of first record: 2001
Mode of introduction: Accidental
Introduction Pathway: Contaminant
Subpathway: Food contaminant
Introduced status: Human dependent
Invasive status: Unlikely to become invasive
Distribution: Is widely distributed in temperate to tropical regions around the world, probably everywhere humans have been growing and storing grains and have been in commercial contact with europeans. in the Galápagos it has been found so far only on the island of santa Cruz (Landry & Roque, 2010).
- Roque-Albelo, L. Landry, B. (2016) CDF Checklist of Galapagos Butterflies and Moths Charles Darwin Research Station, Puerto Ayora, Ecuador, 32 pp.
- Landry, B. Roque-Albelo, L. (2010) The Gelechiidae (Lepidoptera) of the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, a taxonomic revision. Revue Suisse de Zoologie 117(4): 697-770.
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This page should be cited as follows:
"Galapagos Species Database, Sitotroga cerealella", dataZone. Charles Darwin Foundation, https://datazone.darwinfoundation.org/en/checklist/?species=7338. Accessed 27 April 2025.