Description of the insect

• The eggs of Sparganothis pilleriana are deposited in the form of opaque plates of 30 to 70 eggs, often under the leaves. They are very characteristic because their color is apple green. Eggs are very difficult to find in the vineyard without a trained eye. Their counting is often marred by errors, unless the observation is careful.

• About 3 days before hatching , we can clearly see by transparency the cephalic capsule of the young larva as well as its mandibles: this is the black head stage. The moth caterpillar has a brown, almost black head. Its body is green with a longitudinal brown stripe. At an equivalent stage, the moth caterpillar is larger than that of eudemis and cochylis (> 2.5 cm before pupation). It is often found coiled under the leaves where it weaves its cocoon .

• The found pupae are in clusters, on the leaves or under the bark. They are 12 to 14 mm long and are brown in color. On the anterior and posterior parts of the body, there is a small obtuse point. On the part of the abdominal segments of the chrysalis, we can observe a quadruple series of longitudinal hairs.

• The adult moth is larger than the moths of other fruit moths, measuring 11 to 16 mm in length. It has the wings arranged in a triangle at rest. Its forward-facing proboscis (mouthparts) is easily visible when viewed from above. Its coloring is quite variable presenting a yellowish tint, with golden reflections, which can become brown. The fore wings show a spot near the base and 3 transverse brown bands: the first 2 oblique and located on either side of the middle of the wing and the last almost straight forming a border at the outer edge. But there is a great variation in the coloring of the wings and that of the bands. The characteristic of this butterfly is the width of the forewing and the sharp curvature after its point of attachment.