Conogethes pluto
- Family: Crambidae
- Subfamily: Spilomelinae
- Genus: Conogethes
- Distribution: Burma, Thailand, Phillipines, Australia (Q), Solomon Is.
- Habitat: Lowland cultivated areas & disturbed habitats.
- Wing Length: 12mm
Taxonomy
The melanistic holotype of Omiodes pluto Butler 1887: 121 is from the Solomon Is. (Alu).
Description
The basal orange in the non-melanistic varieties of this black spotted sp. is rather more dull than most Conogethes spp. and usually tinged with a purple suffusion which causes its markings to appear rather unsharp. Melanistic varieties are common some appearing purplish orange or dark brown C. sahyadriensis Shashank et al. 2018 is most similar to C. pluto in external morphology and spotting, and the Shashank et al. analysis of COI data found the specimens assigned to this sp. as a distinct clade that is sister to C. pluto (Shashank et al. 2018: 229). See Shashank et al. (2018) for details of phylogeny, morphology and genitalia They noted: ‘sampled specimens of C. pluto are from the Austral-Asian region and it is possible that the species is confined to this region. Conogethes sahyadriensis is so far known from Southern India and Sri Lanka, so that to our current knowledge the distribution ranges of the sister species Conogethes sahyadriensis and C. pluto do not overlap’ The two species can be distinguished by male genitalia and their unique DNA Barcodes.
Life History
The Alpinia stem-borer. A pest of gingers Alpinia spp. (Zingiberaceae). The pheromones of this pest sp. have been investigated by El-Sayed et al. (2013).
References
- El-Sayed, A.M., Gibb, A.R., Mitchell, V.J., Manning, L.-A. M., Revell, J., Thistleton, B., & Suckling, D.M. (2013) Identification of the sex pheromone of Conogethes pluto: a pest of Alpinia. Chemoecology. 23:93-101.