Crops that can be successfully cultivated, if climate allows, include tea, rubber tree, oil palm, coffee and sugar cane.
Coffee is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species, Dalcera abrasa, turnip moth and some members of the genus Endoclita, including E. damor and E. malabaricus.
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Several insect pests affect coffee production, including the coffee borer beetle (Hypothenemus hampei) and the coffee leafminer (Leucoptera caffeina).
Possible foodplants seem to include most core eudicots, as the larvae have been recorded from across that clade: Known foodplants are Sea Hibiscus (Hibiscus tiliaceus), Lonomea (Sapindus oahuensis), Saman (Albizia saman) and coffeetrees (Coffea); the last two are not native to the Pacific region, testifying to the species' adaptability.
Coffea | Coffea arabica | Coffea liberica | coffea |
The shield and lions stand on a silhouette of Mount Kenya containing in the foreground examples of Kenya agricultural produce - coffee, pyrethrum, sisal, tea, maize and pineapples.
They are defoliators of coffee plants (Rubiaceae) and the species are difficult to be determinated by sight.