Male gypsy moth showing antennae

Asian Gypsy Moth has been renamed to Flighted Spongy Moth Complex

Published: 10 February 2023

A number of countries enforce phytosanitary restrictions which include measures against what until recently was called Asian Gypsy Moth.

US and Australian authorities have adopted the new name, abbreviated to FSMC.

Other countries with restrictions, including Canada, New Zealand, Argentina and Chile have yet to change but we expect them to follow suit. BIMCO will continue to monitor those countries.

For the phytosanitary restrictions on our website, we will change AGM to FSMC not only on US and Australia information but also for the countries mentioned above for ease of reference. We will however update our pages again if the those countries adopt another name other than FSMC. 

Note that last June, we reported on a change of name from “Asian Gypsy Moth” (AGM) to “Spongy Moth”. As AGM has been used by governmental authorities in their phytosanitary restrictions for ships entering their ports as a collective name to apply not only to “Spongy Moth (Lymantria dispar species), but also other closely regulated Lymantria moths, the phytosanitary restrictions cannot directly be changed to “Spongy Moth”.

See Australia's restrictions for 2023.

Ai Cheng Foo-Nielsen

CONTACT BIMCO

Ai Cheng Foo-Nielsen

Regulatory Manager

Copenhagen, Denmark