''Bucculatrix ulmella'' 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 ...
of the family
Bucculatricidae
Bucculatricidae or (Bucculatrigidae) is a family of moths. This small family has representatives in all parts of the world. Some authors place the group as a subfamily of the family Lyonetiidae.
Adults of this family are easily overlooked, bein ...
. It is found in most of
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, except the
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
,
Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
and
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
. It was first described in 1848 by
Philipp Christoph Zeller.
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 of ...
is 7–8 mm. The head is ferruginous, sometimes mixed with dark fuscous in middle. Antennal eyecaps ochreous-whitish. Forewings ochreous-whitish, irrorated with brown; four oblique costal spots, first and third large, and a large median dorsal spot dark fuscous; cilia more ochreous tinged. Hindwings are grey. The larva is pale grey-greenish; lateral line darker; dots whitish; head pale brown; segment 2 brownish-grey, black-dotted.
Adults are on wing from May to June and again in August.
The larvae feed on ''
Castanea sativa'', ''
Quercus faginea
''Quercus faginea'', the Portuguese oak, is a species of oak native to the western Mediterranean region in the Iberian Peninsula. Similar trees in the Atlas Mountains of northwest Africa are usually included in this species, or sometimes treate ...
'', ''
Quercus petraea'', ''
Quercus pubescens'', ''
Quercus robur'', ''
Quercus rubra
''Quercus rubra'', the northern red oak, is an oak tree in the red oak group (''Quercus'' section ''Lobatae''). It is a native of North America, in the eastern and central United States and southeast and south-central Canada. It has been introdu ...
'' and ''
Quercus trojana''. 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 short, angular corridor with much black
frass
Frass refers loosely to the more or less solid excreta of insects, and to certain other related matter.
Definition and etymology
''Frass'' is an informal term and accordingly it is variously used and variously defined. It is derived from the ...
and a large larval chamber. The larvae leave the mine and engage in lower-surface window feeding.
Larvae can be found in July and again from September to October. They are greenish grey mottled with white and with a light brown head.
Gallery
Image:Bucculatrix ulmella oak leaf mined and gnawed.JPG, Mined oak leaf
Image:Bucculatrix ulmella larva.JPG, Larva
References
External links
Bucculatricidae
Leaf miners
Moths described in 1848
Moths of Europe
Taxa named by Philipp Christoph Zeller
{{Gracillarioidea-stub