''Bucculatrix improvisa'' is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

in the family Bucculatricidae. It was described by Annette Frances Braun in 1963 and is found in North America, where it has been recorded from

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan o ...

is 7-7.5 mm. The forewings are golden brown or ocherous, the scales mostly tipped with dark brown. The hindwings are fuscous. Adults have been recorded on wing in July. There are two generations per year. The larvae feed on ''

Tilia americana ''Tilia americana'' is a species of tree in the family Malvaceae, native to eastern North America, from southeast Manitoba east to New Brunswick, southwest to northeast Oklahoma, southeast to South Carolina, and west along the Niobrara River to ...

'', '' Tilia neglecta'' and '' Tilia heterophylla''. They

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

the leaves of their host plant. The mine has the form of a fine thread, at first lying alongside the vein, then sharply diverging from it. Older larvae leave the mine and live freely on the leaf, which is eaten in patches, leaving the upper epidermis. Full-grown larvae are greenish red. Pupation takes place in a yellowish cocoon, which is spun on the underside of a leaf. The species overwinters in the pupal stage.

References

;Notes ;Sources
Natural History Museum Lepidoptera generic names catalog
Bucculatricidae Moths described in 1963 Moths of North America Taxa named by Annette Frances Braun {{Gracillarioidea-stub