Stats

Lifespan: A few weeks
Size: Tiny
Diet: Herbivore
Activity: Crepuscular
Social: Solitary
Biome: Temperate grassland
Range: Worldwide
Movement: Flight
Breeding: Egg-laying
Defense: Camouflage
Status: Common

About

The Diamondback Moth is a small, slender moth named for the row of pale diamond-shaped spots that appear along its folded wings at rest. It is one of the world's most destructive pests of cabbage and other brassica crops, having evolved resistance to nearly every class of insecticide used against it.

Life cycle

1.
egg
A tiny ribbed egg laid on the underside of a host-plant leaf, hatching within days.
2.
caterpillar
A voracious caterpillar feeds and molts through several instars, growing rapidly.
3.
cocoon
A silk cocoon spun in leaf litter or soil while the body remodels into a winged adult.
4.
moth
A winged adult with feathery antennae and scaled wings, most active after dark.

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Plutellidae
Genus: Plutella
Species: Plutella xylostella