| Levuana moth | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Zygaenidae |
| Subfamily: | Procridinae |
| Genus: | †Levuana |
| Species: | †L. iridescens
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| Binomial name | |
| †Levuana iridescens Bethune-Baker, 1906
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The levuana moth (Levuana iridescens)[1] is an extinct species of moth in the family Zygaenidae. It is monotypic within the genus Levuana.
The levuana moth became a serious pest for coconut plants in 1877, in Viti Levu, Fiji. On the island, outbreaks of the levuana moth were frequent at that time, and as a result coconut palms were devastated due to moth larvae feeding on the underside of leaves. As a consequence, copra (dried coconut meat from which coconut oil is extracted) production was severely affected and coconut cultivation became unprofitable on Viti Levu.
Indigenous Fijian culture, which relied on the coconut for food, water, fiber, medicinal products, fuel, and building materials, was threatened as a result of this coconut pest. In 1916, following a forty-year isolation on Viti Levu, the levuana moth began expanding its range to close offshore islands, after a variety of cultural and chemical control strategies (over approximately a 16-year period) failed to bring this pest under effective control, until around 1925 when a historic biological control program devised by John Douglas Tothill permanently reduced high population densities to almost non-detectable levels.[2]
- ^ Bethune-Baker GT (1906). "On New African Lepidoptera". The Annals and Magazine of Natural History: Including Zoology, Botany, and Geology. University of Toronto. p. 344. Retrieved December 7, 2016 – via Heritage Library.
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