''Dystebenna'' is a genus of

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 ...

s of the family Elachistidae. The genus is mostly placed in the family Elachistidae, but other authors list it as a member of the family

Agonoxenidae The Agonoxeninae are a subfamily of moths. History of classification Formerly, the subfamily only contained four named species – all in the type genus '' Agonoxena'' – if (e.g. following Nielsen ''et al.'', 1996). Such a monotypic ar ...

. It contains only one species ''Dystebenna stephensi'', which is found in Asia and Europe.

Description

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 8–9 mm. Adults are on wing from the end of June to September and can be found resting on the trunk of the host tree. The larvae feed on oak (''

Quercus An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably '' ...

'' species) and chestnut (''

Castanea The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nut (fruit), nuts they produce. Th ...

'' species). They feed within the bark,

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

their host and preferring mature trees. The larvae can be detected by orange frass on the trunk. The species overwinters in the pupal stage within the mine.

Distribution

''Dystebenna stephensi'' is found in central

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 ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

, southern

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

and western

Transcaucasia The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...

References

External links

* Parametriotinae Monotypic moth genera Leaf miners Moths described in 1849 Moths of Asia Moths of Europe Taxa named by Henry Tibbats Stainton {{Elachistidae-stub