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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Systematic Entomology Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #377088
Research Project: Systematics of Moths Significant to Biodiversity, Quarantine, and Control, with a Focus on Invasive Species

Location: Systematic Entomology Laboratory

Title: Niditinea sabroskyi Metz and Davis (Lepidoptera: Tineidae: Tineinae) from tree swallow nests on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada

Author
item Metz, Mark
item MCEVOY, FRITZ - Non ARS Employee

Submitted to: Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/24/2020
Publication Date: 10/23/2020
Citation: Metz, M., Mcevoy, F. 2020. Niditinea sabroskyi Metz and Davis (Lepidoptera: Tineidae: Tineinae) from tree swallow nests on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington. 122(4):1019-1021.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4289/0013-8797.122.4.1019

Interpretive Summary: Clothes moths are stored products and nuisance pests worldwide. They are commonly intercepted at U.S. ports of entry, but their identification is extremely difficult because of their small size and the need to dissect male and/or female genitalic structures. Species have been carried throughout the World as a result of human activity just like rats and cockroaches. In this work, we report a northeastern range expansion and an additional association with bird nests for a clothes moth species we described in 2018. This is notable because it further supports the hypothesis that the moth prefers bird nests, extends the known distribution of the species northeast into Canada, and documents the utility of making new species known to the World. This work is a direct result of the previous ARS publication of the new moth species in 2018. This new information will expand our understanding of the biology of the commonly occurring species, so identifiers can make more prudent decisions about trafficked goods. This information will be useful to scientists and action agency identifiers.

Technical Abstract: The tineid moth, Niditinea sabroskyi Metz and Davis, is reported for the first time in Canada (Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia). Specimens were reared from tree swallow nest boxes supporting the hypothesis that N. sabroskyi is a bird nest associate as originally proposed. We provide a brief review of the known bird nest associations and the geographic extension of the known distribution for N. sabroskyi.