Northward Expansion of Two Mint-Feeding Species of <i>Pyrausta</i> in California (Lepidoptera: Pyraloidea: Crambidae).

Abstract

Pyrausta laticlavia (G. & R.), which may have been a native species as far north as Monterey County, expanded its range northward into the San Francisco Bay area (1990) and Sacramento Valley (1993), after at least a century of residency in southern California. P. volupialis (Grote), colonized Los Angeles County from Arizona by 1991 and spread into the San Francisco Bay area by 1997. Both have been reared from larvae feeding on Rosemary (Rosmarinus offidnalis L.; Lamiaceae). Movement of nursery stock may account for the rapid spread of P. volupialis, but global warming may be a factor in recent adaptation to more northern climes by these and several other Lepidoptera reviewed here.