Ghostly moth

We had another pretty moth visitor . This one wasn't as large but it was a ghostly opalescent white [which camouflaged it well against the ceiling.]

It turned out to be a Palpita vitrealis moth -called the pyrale du jasmin in french [bee moth of the jasmine] -the caterpillars eat jasmine and olive leaves.

They are only a considered a pest of the young planted olive trees [less than 3 years old] as the caterpillars can entirely strip a sapling of its juicy young leaves. In old established olive trees , the caterpillars can't do much damage.
You can see how translucent the wings are in this photo -which is why the moth's name is vitrealis [the root is from the latin word for glass- vitrum ]


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Palpita vitrealis moth