The potato tuber moth (PTM) is the most damaging pest of potatoes in fields and stores in warm, dry areas of the world, such as North Africa and the Middle East, Mexico, Central America, and the inter-Andean valleys of South America.

Species involved are the common PTM, Phthorimaea operculella, of worldwide distribution; the Andean PTM, Symmetrischema tangolias (plaesiosema), in the mid-elevation Andean region; and Tecia solanivora, a Central American species that has spread to Venezuela and Colombia in recent years. Another species, Scrobipalpuloides (=Scrobipalpula) absoluta, whose damage is restricted to the above ground part of the plant.