Our insect of the week for February 23, 2026 is Tegeticula yuccasella (the yucca moth) [LEPIDOPTERA: Prodoxidae]. It was described by Charles Valentine Riley [the first insect curator of the Smithsonian Institution] in 1872.
This species is known from Texas to southern Canada including central Illinois. Larvae feed on various species of yucca.
Adults are the sole pollinator of yucca. Adults do not live very long and do not feed. However, they use their mouthparts in a rather unique manner. The following paragraphs are quoted from the Forest Service (USDA) website discussing this species.
“The adult yucca moth does not need to feed because it is so short lived. However, the female gathers pollen, which it holds under its chin with the help of the tentacles. Males and females emerge from their cocoons in the spring in synchrony with the blossoming of the species of yucca with which they are partners. They meet and mate on the yucca blossoms and then the job of the females starts.
She visits the anthers of the flower and scrapes the pollen from several of them shaping it into a large lump. Then she leaves in search of another inflorescence, not just another flower in the same bunch but in a different plant altogether, assuring in this manner the cross pollination of the yucca.
When she arrives at a new plant, she inspects the flowers and chooses the ones that are at the right stage. She also checks if there are already eggs laid in the flower’s ovary. She can detect the smell of other female moths with her antennae and, if another one has been there already, she searches for another flower. This is good for the plant and for the future babies because, if too many eggs were laid in one flower ovary, the flower would abort and the larvae would starve. She lays her eggs in the ovary, no more than a handful; once again, if she laid too many eggs, the flower would abort.
Afterwards she goes to the stigma of the flower and carefully removes some pollen from under her chin and deposits it on the stigma. Now the flower will produce a fruit and enough seeds to feed the larvae as well as ensure the reproduction of the plant.”
This specimen shown was collected and photographed by Frank Hitchell in Peoria County, Illinois.
