Levuana iridescens: taxon details and analytics

Domain
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Arthropoda
Class
Insecta
Order
Lepidoptera
Family
Zygaenidae
Genus
Levuana
Species
Levuana iridescens
Scientific Name
Levuana iridescens

Summary description from Wikipedia:

Levuana moth

The levuana moth (Levuana iridescens) is an extinct species of moth in the family Zygaenidae. It is monotypic within the genus Levuana.

The levuana moth became a serious pest for coconut plants in 1877, in Viti Levu, Fiji. On the island, outbreaks of the levuana moth were frequent at that time, and as a result coconut palms were devastated due to moth larvae feeding on the underside of leaves. As a consequence, copra (dried coconut meat from which coconut oil is extracted) production was severely affected and coconut cultivation became unprofitable on Viti Levu. The levuana moth was declared extinct in 1990. The species was officially declared extinct by the IUCN in 2021.

Indigenous Fijian culture, which relied on the coconut for food, water, fiber, medicinal products, fuel, and building materials, was threatened as a result of this coconut pest. In 1916, following a forty-year isolation on Viti Levu, the levuana moth began expanding its range to close offshore islands, after a variety of cultural and chemical control strategies (over approximately a 16-year period) failed to bring this pest under effective control, until around 1925 when a historic biological control program devised by John Douglas Tothill permanently reduced high population densities to almost non-detectable levels.

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Levuana iridescens in languages:

English
Levuana Moth
English
Fijian Coconut Moth

Parent Taxon

Sibling Taxa

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