Animalia > Arthropoda > Insecta > Lepidoptera > Sesiidae > Melittia > Melittia cucurbitae

Melittia cucurbitae (Squash vine borer)

Synonyms: Aegeria cucurbitae; Eichlinia cucurbitae; Melittia amoena; Trochilium ceto

Wikipedia Abstract

The squash vine borer (Melittia cucurbitae) is a diurnal species of sesiid moth. It is a pest that attacks wild and cultivated varieties of squash. The moth is often mistaken for a bee or wasp because of its movements, and the bright orange hindleg 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.
View Wikipedia Record: Melittia cucurbitae

Attributes

Wing Span [1]  1.22 inches (.031 m)

Prey / Diet

Citrullus lanatus (watermelon)[2]
Cucumis callosus (cantaloupe)[2]
Cucumis sativus (garden cucumber)[2]
Cucurbita maxima (winter squash)[2]
Cucurbita pepo (field pumpkin)[2]

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Squash Vine Borer Melittia cucurbitae (Harris) (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Sesiidae), Eutychus Kariuki and Jennifer L. Gillett-Kaufman, December 2014
2HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0