''Eriocrania'' is a

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

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

Eriocraniidae Eriocraniidae is a family of moths restricted to the Holarctic region, with six extant genera. These small, metallic moths are usually day-flying, emerging fairly early in the northern temperate spring. They have a proboscis with which they drin ...

. The moths are diurnal, flying in sunshine, and the larvae are

leaf mine A leaf miner is any one of numerous species of insects in which the larval stage lives in, and eats, the leaf tissue of plants. The vast majority of leaf-mining insects are moths ( Lepidoptera), sawflies ( Symphyta, the mother clade of wasp ...

rs, forming blotches in leaves.

Description

The moths are diurnal flying in sunshine, at dawn during March, April and May. They often fly around the host trees. On cold, sunny days they can be found on the branches, and by beating a branch over a beating tray can be seen motionless, when they fall on to the cloth. At rest the wings are held at a steep angle and are purple or golden, sometimes with net-like or mottled markings. The head has spiky scales on top. Many of the adults are difficult to tell apart and can only be identified by genitalia dissection. Eggs are laid in a leaf bud or the

parenchyma Parenchyma () is the bulk of functional substance in an animal organ or structure such as a tumour. In zoology it is the name for the tissue that fills the interior of flatworms. Etymology The term ''parenchyma'' is New Latin from the word π ...

of a leaf. Larvae are white or gray and mine leaves, forming large blotches with long, intertwining strands of

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 ...

, on the leaves of birches (''

Betula A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...

'' species), hazel (''

Corylus The hazel (''Corylus'') is a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K. (1999). ...

'' species), hornbeam (''

Carpinus Hornbeams are hardwood trees in the flowering plant genus ''Carpinus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The 30–40 species occur across much of the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Origin of names The common English name ''hornbeam' ...

'' species) or oaks (''

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). The mines appear in the spring, shortly after the leaves are fully open. Pupation takes place in the soil within a tough silken cocoon.

Etymology

The generic name was raised by

Philipp Christoph Zeller Philipp Christoph Zeller (8 April 1808 – 27 March 1883) was a German entomologist. Zeller was born at Steinheim an der Murr, Württemberg, two miles from Marbach, the birthplace of Schiller. The family moved to Frankfurt (Oder) where Philipp ...

in 1851. ''Eriocrania'' means woolly-headed, from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

, erion – wool and kranion – upper part of the head.

Species

*'' Eriocrania alpinella'' *'' Eriocrania breviapex'' *'' Eriocrania carpinella'' *'' Eriocrania chrysolepidella'' *'' Eriocrania cicatricella'' *'' Eriocrania komaii'' *'' Eriocrania sakhalinella'' *'' Eriocrania salopiella'' *'' Eriocrania sangii'' *''

Eriocrania semipurpurella ''Eriocrania semipurpurella'' (Purplish birch-miner) is a moth of the family Eriocraniidae, found from Europe to Japan and in North America. It was first described by James Francis Stephens in 1835. The species closely resembles '' Eriocrania sa ...

'' *'' Eriocrania sparrmannella'' *'' Eriocrania unimaculella''

References

External links

Eriocrania at funet
Leaf miners Moth genera Glossata genera Taxa named by Philipp Christoph Zeller {{Eriocranioidea-stub