S. littoralis is found widely in Africa, Mediterranean Europe and Middle Eastern countries.

[2][3] The devastating impacts caused by these pests have led to the development of both biological and chemical control methods.

Due to the similarities between many pest insects, there have been noted incidents of many species that are almost identical to S. littoralis.

For example, Spodoptera litura or cotton leafworm is often confused with S. littoralis, since the larvae and adult stages of two species are near identical.

However, Viette demonstrated that these are two different species, as S. litura was found to mostly reside in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.

The species' forewings are grey-brown colored and has an ocellus that are constructed by white oblique lines.

[7] Similarly, it was reported that Prodenia ornithogalli is an American representative of S. littoralis as forms of the two species are extremely close and related.

[8] African cotton leafworm is native to Africa and also resides in most regions of Middle Eastern countries such as Israel, Syria and Turkey.

[9] This species has also been found in Southern and Mediterranean Europe, mainly in Spain, France, Italy and Greece.

[1] As the African cotton leafworm is prone to cold weather, the species' natural range is limited in the northern regions of Europe such as the United Kingdom.

[9] As a result, S. littoralis resides in regions where temperature fluctuation is rare to feed on variety of host plants, in which the females lay eggs and the larvae primarily grow.

[4] Species distribution mainly occurs through trade when egg or larvae get on the imported ornamentals or crops.

The species is known as a pest of several economically important crops such as Ipomoea batatas (sweet potato), Solanum lycopersicum (tomato), Zea mays (maize), Triticum aestivum (wheat), Capsicum (peppers), Chloris gayana (rhodes grass) and Hibiscus mutabilis (cottonrose).

[13] Larvae have been found to suffer drastic feeding inhibition from injection with myosuppressin, by Vilaplana et al.

Specifically, Cheiracanthium mildei and Ummeliata insecticeps are known dominant predator species of S. littoralis that not only feed on the larvae but also induce dispersion from host plant.

Studies revealed that age difference between the male and female moth is crucial in determining reproductive capacity, adult lifespan and egg quality.

When a four-day-old male mated with a fresh born female, egg fertility was observed to be high.

As most matings occur at night, females producing largest amount of pheromone was observed 2–3 hours into scotophase, a dark phase of light cycle.

[17] Other than its function to attract mates, female-produced pheromones may also synchronize male circadian rhythm.

[21][22] Because of S. littoralis' polyphagous behavior, the species has been damaging to many economically crucial crops such as cotton, tomato, maize and various other vegetables.

[2] In the United States, S. littoralis has been listed as an exotic organism with high invasive risk.

[24] Due to S. littoralis' devastating effect on crops, numerous attempts have been made to counteract the species' dispersion and activities.

[4] Usage of bacteria such as Bacillus thuringiensis in combination with bacterial endochitinase has also been utilized recently to control many bacteria-resistant strains of S. littoralis larvae.

Studies revealed that the synergistic toxic effect of Bacillus thuringiensis and bacterial endochitinase successfully resulted in reduced larval weight.