Prodoxidae
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The Prodoxidae is a family of moths commonly known as the yucca moths. These small-to-medium sized insects are among the oldest of all moths.
These moths are most well-known for their obligate pollination/herbivory relationship with their hosts, the yuccas. Their bore holes are a common sight on trunks of such plants as the Soaptree yucca. The interactions of these organisms range from obligate mutualism to commensalism to outright antangonism.
Two of the three yucca moth genera, Tegeticula and Parategeticula, have an obligate pollination mutualism with yuccas. Yuccas are only pollinated by these moths, and the pollinator larvae feed exclusively on yucca seeds. Species of the third genus of yucca moths, Prodoxus, are not engaged in the pollination mutualism, nor do the larvae feed on developing seeds. Their eggs are deposited in fruits and leaves, where they eat and grow, not emerging until fully mature.
[edit] References
- Parasitoids of the Yucca Moths
- Parodoxidae: the Yucca Moths
- Pellmyr, O., J. N. Thompson, J. Brown, and R. G. Harrison. 1996a. Evolution of pollination and mutualism in the yucca moth lineage. American Naturalist 148: 827–847.
- Powell, J. A. 1992. Interrelationships of yuccas and yucca moths. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 7: 10–15.
