blunt tellin vs Cocoa moth

Arcopagia crassa compared with Ephestia elutella

Key Differences

• blunt tellin is Vulnerable while Cocoa moth is Least Concern.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	blunt tellin	Cocoa moth
Kingdom same	Animalia (Animals)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum	Mollusca (Mollusks)	Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class	Bivalvia (Bivalvia)	Insecta (Insects)
Order	Cardiida (Cardiida)	Lepidoptera (Butterflies & Moths)
Family	Tellinidae	Pyralidae
Genus	Arcopagia	Ephestia
Species	Arcopagia crassa	Ephestia elutella

Evolutionary Relationship

blunt tellin and Cocoa moth share a common ancestor at the Kingdom level: Animalia. (Animals)

Conservation Status

blunt tellin

VU — Vulnerable

Cocoa moth

LC — Least Concern

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	blunt tellin	Cocoa moth
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

blunt tellin

Habitat

Native to Europe, inhabiting ecosystems characteristic of the region.

Range

Distributed across Belgium, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Currently classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, this species faces significant conservation challenges across its range.

Cocoa moth

Habitat

Found across multiple habitat types including tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, deserts and xeric shrublands, and Mediterranean forests and woodlands spanning the Afrotropic and Palearctic realms.

Range

Widely distributed across Africa (Cabo Verde), Asia (4 countries), Europe (30 countries), and North America (Canada, United States).

blunt tellin

The Blunt tellin (Arcopagia crassa) is a species in the genus Arcopagia. It is currently classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Native to Europe, inhabiting ecosystems characteristic of the region.

Cocoa moth

The cocoa moth (Ephestia elutella) is a small moth in the family Pyralidae with a wingspan of 14–22 millimetres, cosmopolitan in distribution as a stored-product pest. The species is native to Europe but has spread globally through trade in stored commodities, particularly cocoa beans (from which its common name derives), dried fruits, tobacco, grain, nuts, and confectionery. Adults are greyish-brown with subtle patterning on the forewings; they are short-lived and do not feed as adults. Females lay eggs directly in or near food material; larvae are creamy-white with dark head capsules and spin silken webbing through infested commodities as they feed, causing significant post-harvest economic losses. Like other pyralid stored-product moths, E. elutella is a major pest of food processing and warehousing facilities worldwide, thriving in warm, dry storage conditions with high carbohydrate content. It has been recorded from at least 30 European countries and is present on all inhabited continents. Control relies on temperature treatment, pheromone-baited monitoring traps, and chemical insecticides, though resistance to some compounds has been reported. The species is classified as Least Concern by the IUCN, reflecting its global distribution and thriving populations in human-modified environments. Its economic importance has made it the subject of extensive research into stored-product pest biology, chemical ecology, and integrated pest management strategies.

Shared Countries

Both species can be found in 4 countries:

🇧🇪 Belgium 🇩🇰 Denmark 🇳🇴 Norway 🇸🇪 Sweden