Another Lep in the Living Room

It probably won’t surprise anyone who reads this blog when I say that any bug that shows up in my house becomes a potential photo subject (not just big, flashy, unseasonable butterflies). So last week when a little (~7 mm), nondescript, brown moth was spotted on the living room floor, it got the same treatment as last month’s tiger swallowtail.

By its general shape and pattern, I recognized it as a tortricid moth in the subfamily Olethreutinae, but I didn’t have a clue what it was beyond that. I’ve always been a fan of tortricids’ faces—they often have distinctive “hairstyles”…

…and many have interestingly patterned green eyes, as this one did. In these photos you can see one of the simple eyes  (ocelli) directly above the compound eye. I don’t remember ever noticing ocelli on a moth before.

Unfortunately, after I let it out the front door, I learned from Ken Childs that it was Grapholita molesta, the Oriental fruit moth. Larvae of this introduced species bore in shoots and fruits of apple, peach, plum, pear, and cherry, all of which are available to it in our yard (more shoots than fruits, so far). Had I known, I would have offered it to the chickens instead.