American chestnut moth

The American chestnut moth (Ectoedemia castaneae) was a species of moth in the family Nepticulidae. As of 1996, the species is considered extinct.[1] Before this, it was endemic to the United States, including Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

American chestnut moth
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Lepidoptera
Family:
Nepticulidae
Genus:
Ectoedemia
Species:
E. castaneae
Binomial name
Ectoedemia castaneae
Busck, 1913

Its wingspan was 7.5–8 mm.[2]

The larvae formed galls encircling young twigs of American chestnut, resembling in shape and size egg-masses of the forest tent caterpillar. The moth's synergistic relationship with the North American nut species led to a catastrophic population decline when almost all of the American chestnut trees fell victim to chestnut blight. The American chestnut was driven almost to extinction, and the American chestnut moth was driven completely to extinction.[3][4]

Sources
  1. World Conservation Monitoring Centre. 2018. Ectoedemia castaneae (amended version of 1996 assessment). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T7028A134978019. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T7028A134978019.en. Downloaded on 05 August 2020.
  2. Braun, A. F. (1917). Nepticulidae of North America. Transactions of the American Entomological Society (1890-), 43(2), 155-209.
  3. Opler, P. A. (1978, January). Insects of American chestnut: possible importance and conservation concern. In The American chestnut symposium (pp. 83-85). Morgantown, West Virginia: West Virginia University Press.
  4. Thompson, H. (2012). The chestnut resurrection. Nature, 490(7418), 22.


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