tortrix
/ˈtɔːtrɪks
/(also tortrix moth)
noun (plural tortrices /ˈtrɪsiːz/)
A small moth with typically green caterpillars that live inside rolled leaves and can be a serious pest of fruit and other trees.
- Family Tortricidae: many species, including Pammene rhediella, whose larvae damage apple and plum trees.
- Sugar pine tortrix larva with ivory colored spots, easily confused with western spruce budworm.
- The natural enemies can play an essential role in the regulation of the tortrix moths population dynamics.
Derivatives
tortricid
- This complex of pest species includes tortricid leafrollers, noctuid fruitworms and cutworms, and gracillarid leafminers.
- Among the species responsible for such early spring herbivory were 6 species of tortricid leaf-roller caterpillars, primarily Clepsis melaleucana, and a European slug, Arion subfuscus (Draparnaud).
- Our studies have demonstrated it is possible to simultaneously disrupt pheromone communication and mating in sympatric tortricid moths by releasing an incomplete mixture of their individual pheromone components.
Origin
Late 18th century: modern Latin, feminine of Latin tortor 'twister', from torquere 'to twist'.