Wax Moth

• GeneralIts larvae can break down polyethylene plastic, which is being investigated as a way to tackle pollution.
• It has become a widely used laboratory model for studying infections and testing antibiotics, because its innate immune response resembles that of vertebrates and allows the use of mice to be reduced.
• The adults do not feed; the whole eating stage falls to the larva.
• The larva eats beeswax, pollen and bee bread, and ruins whole combs: the damage in apiaries is known as galleriosis.
• In 2017 it was discovered to break down polyethylene, a plastic that hardly biodegrades at all. The explanation lies in its diet: beeswax has the same hydrocarbon bonds as polyethylene.
• The larvae bore through plastic film at about two holes per caterpillar per hour, and the bacteria and fungi in their gut take part in the breakdown.
• It is one of the most widely used animal models in infection research today: it can be kept at 37 °C, it is susceptible to human pathogens, and its melanisation response serves as a visual indicator of health.
• In 2024, techniques were developed for generating transgenic lines and CRISPR-Cas9 edits, which greatly widens its usefulness as a cheap model free of the ethical objections attached to vertebrates.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat and environment

Honeybee hives

Birth weight

The larva weighs about 0.02 mg on hatching and reaches 200 mg by day 15, doubling its weight daily for the first ten

Size at birth

Spherical egg of 0.44 to 0.50 mm; the larva goes from 1 mm at birth to about 30 mm

Sexual maturity

The adult has vestigial mouthparts, neither eats nor drinks and lives 3 to 30 days, the longer the cooler it is

Gestation / incubation

The eggs hatch in 3-5 days at 29-35 °C and in up to 30-35 days in cold conditions; the full cycle ranges from 4 weeks to 6 months depending on temperature and the availability of food

Litter / clutch size

300 to 600 eggs per female in the usual range and up to 1,800 in all, in clutches of 50 to 150 in cracks in the comb

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Galleria mellonella · LSU AgCenter, ficha Greater wax moth · Biology Insights · ScienceDirect (Hughes 1989) · Science Advances, How colonial animals evolve · Wikipedia, Zooid · LSU AgCenter · estudio de ciclo biologico en distintas condiciones climaticas · Biology Insights, ficha Greater wax moth