Moth, Florida

We here summarize work we have done with a moth, Utetheisa ornatrix, that has a dependence on certain plant alkaloids. The moth uses the compounds for defense and for production of a pheromone that plays a decisive role in sexual selection. The species has a broad range, extending through North America east of the Rockies and southward into Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. Our studies were done mostly with populations of the moth from central Florida. 

Vick, K.W., Coffelt, J.A., and Weaver, W.A. 1987. Presence of four species of stored-product moths in storage and field situations in north-central Florida as determined with sex pheromone-baited traps. Florida Entomol. 70, 488-492. 

Greenfield, M.D. (1981). Moth sex pheromones an evolutionary perspective. Florida Entomologist 64 4-17. 

The beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua, is a rather recent pest in Holland, where it is now called the Florida moth. After it was accidentally introduced into the Netherlands in 1976, it immediately became a grave pest in greenhouses, mainly for chrysanthemums and gerberae, but to a lesser extent also for egg-plants. As application of insecticides such as synthetic pyrethroids, initially effective, soon proved to have become inadequate, other methods were needed, and pheromones were investigated as possible alternatives. 

The world s consumption of camphor is about 5000-6000 tons. Camphor is also produced somewhat in Italy and in Florida and Texas. Most of the camphor is utilized in the manufacture of celluloid (p. 376), about 70 per cent of the product being thus used under normal conditions. About 2 per cent is used in the manufacture of explosives, to make them insensitive to shock 13 per cent for pharmaceutical preparations and 15 per cent for miscellaneous purposes. Its most common use is as an insecticide for the moth larvae in which use it is largely replaced by naphthalene in the form of moth balls. 

Starmer, W.T., Aberdeen, V., Lachance, M.-A. (1988a). The yeast community associated with decaying Opuntia stricta (Haworth) in Florida with regard to the moth Cactoblastis cactorum (Berg). Florida Scientist 51, 7-11. 

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was first synthesized in 1874, but it was almost 65 years later before its insecticidal properties were discovered by the Swiss chemist Paul Hermann Mueller. Employed by J. R. Geigy, Inc. (Basel, Switzerland), Mueller was searching for new insecticides against clothes moths and carpet beetles when he stumbled across the insecticidal properties of DDT. Samples of the chemical found their way to the United States and the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Orlando, Florida, in 1942. Once its tremendous effectiveness in controlling mosquitoes was demonstrated, DDT was put into service protecting the troops in 1944. 

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