The postharvest pests, including the dried fruit moth Cadra cautella Walker, are important limiting factors in the exportation of dates. The biology of C. cautella, its survivorship, developmental time, fecundity, oviposition, post oviposition period, as well as longevity of the adults were studied on four date palm varieties of Zahedi, Piarom, Rabbi, and Deyri under laboratory conditions in Iran. The experiments were carried out at constant temperature room (29 ± 1 °C, 60 ± 5% RH and photoperiod 16L: 8D hrs.). The highest survivorship of egg and larval stages was recorded 92.66%, 85.89% on Zahedi and 100% for pupal stage on Rabbi. The shortest larval period was 32.93 ± 1.41 days and 33.37 ± 1.87 days on Deyri and Zahedi respectively. The shortest total development time for males from egg to adult was 40.91 ± 1.15 days and 40.97 ± 1.59 days on Zahedi and Deyri respectively and for females was 43.76 ± 2.47 days on Deyri. The longest total development time for males was 47.61 ± 1.50 days on Piarom and for female was 55.88 ± 2.31 and 55.37 ± 3.87 days on Piarom and Rabbi respectively. The highest (247.00 ± 8.53 eggs per female) and lowest (147.40 ± 12.06 eggs per female) fecundity occurred on Zahedi and Piarom, respectively. The date palm varieties Zahedi, Deyri, Rabbi and Piarom are found to be on preferrence order for C. cautella. The results of this study would be useful for planning pest management strategies in date palm fruit storages
