280 days of Urbpandemonium #152

[urbpan]

Well this hasn't happened to me in a while. I found a new moth--indoors, of all places--and thought I'd check with the experts. Turns out it's something I should have known about, because it is a household pest. Despite my never have encountered it before, it's a well-known grain feeder called a meal moth Pyralis farinalis*. It's not the creature I call the grain moth (also known as the Indian meal moth, pantry moth, or pasta moth Plodia interpunctella**) which is a much smaller relative. Both species have larvae that feed on milled grain products, often with very disappointing results (in the eyes of the human owners of the grain products). Thanks to coolbugs for making the identification--and by the way, I haven't found any more (yet).



* Of fire, living in the flour

** Generic name Plodia apparently has no significance ("sans étymologie"), Specific epithet interpunctella is Latin meaning "well divided, pointed."