This moth is only found in Yucca plants. The moths shown here were photographed on the Yucca flowers around the Nature Center at Neale Woods on June 12, 2017. The moths fly when the Yuccas are flowering. These moths are short-lived and do not feed.

Only the Yucca moth can pollinate the Yucca flowers, so this mutually beneficial relationship is vital for the survival of both plant and moth. At maturity, yucca pollen grains are sticky masses called pollinia. The female moth has a pair of special long, curved prehensile appendages in her mouth (maxillary palpi) to collect, form and carry a pollen ball. The female crawls into a flower and inserts her ovipositer into the ovary wall and deposits one egg into the ovule chamber. Next she draws the pollen mass back and forth over the stigma, insuring pollination of the flower. The larva hatches in late spring and summer and feeds on the maturing seeds. It only consumes a small percentage of the hundreds of seeds within the seed capsule. In late fall the larva drops to the ground, burrows into the soil and constructs a silken cocoon covered with sand grains in which it spends the winter. (“Wayne’s Word,” Volume 9, #2, summer 2000).