European Grape Moth

(Polychrosis botrana). a moth of the Tortricidae family; a harmful grape pest.

The European grape moth has a wingspan of 10–13 mm; the front wings are speckled with a pattern of bright stripes and greenish-gray, yellowish, and blue-gray spots. It is found in western Europe and the USSR (in the southern Ukraine, the Caucasus, Transcaucasia, the Lower Volga Region, and Middle Asia). There are three generations per year (four in Middle Asia). The pupa winters in cracks in the bark of grapevines and in the wooden vine-supports. The moths deposit their eggs on the buds in spring and on the fruit in summer. First-generation caterpillars enmesh the flower clusters in a web and eat the buds, blossoms, and gynoecia; caterpillars of the later generations eat the fruit. Gray mold rot develops on the damaged mature grapes. The grape moth can be combated by the cultivation of moth-resistant strains of the grape, by growing grapes on trellises, by using insecticides where grapes are grown, and by cleaning the old bark from the trunks.