''Eriocrania semipurpurella'' (Purplish birch-miner) 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

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 ...

, found from

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 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. It was first described by

James Francis Stephens James Francis Stephens (16 September 1792 – 22 December 1852) was an English entomologist and naturalist. He is known for his 12 volume ''Illustrations of British Entomology'' (1846) and the ''Manual of British Beetles'' (1839). Early li ...

in 1835. The species closely resembles '' Eriocrania sangii'' and the larvae of both species

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 birch.

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 10–16 mm.

Edward Meyrick Edward Meyrick (25 November 1854, in Ramsbury – 31 March 1938, at Thornhanger, Marlborough) was an English schoolmaster and amateur entomologist. He was an expert on microlepidoptera and some consider him one of the founders of modern micr ...

gives this description: Forewings elongate, bronzy-purple, more or less sprinkled with pale shining golden; an indistinct usually small transverse pale golden dorsal spot before tornus, sometimes almost obsolete; cilia bronzy-grey, on dorsal spot ochreous-whitish; 9 absent. Hindwings with hairscales except towards margins posteriorly, bronzy-grey, posteriorly purplish-tinged. Larva whitish; head pale ochreous-brown, mouth darker in blotch in leaves of birch. The moth flies from March to April depending on the location. The moth flies in sunshine around birch trees (''

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), sometimes in swarms in March and April. In dull weather, they rest on twigs. ;Similar species ''E. semipurpurella'' looks similar to ''E. sangii'' and can only be told apart by looking at the genitalia. ;Other stages Eggs are laid on the leaf bud and the larvae feed on the leaves in a mine from the end of March to early-May. The mine starts at or near the edge of a leaf and widens into a blotch. The frass is string-like. The larvae have dark markings on the head and

prothorax The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum (dorsal), the prosternum (ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on ea ...

which lighten as it matures. Pupation takes place in a tough silken cocoon in the soil.

Subspecies

* ''Eriocrania semipurpurella semipurpurella'' (North America (from eastern Ontario east to Nova Scotia and south to southern New York), from Great Britain through northern and central Europe to Japan) * ''Eriocrania semipurpurella pacifica'' Clarke, 1978 (southern Alaska and north-western Washington)

Etymology Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...

Stephens described the moth from a

specimen Specimen may refer to: Science and technology * Sample (material), a limited quantity of something which is intended to be similar to and represent a larger amount * Biological specimen or biospecimen, an organic specimen held by a biorepository ...

found in Darenth Wood,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, England, naming the moth, ''Lampronia semipurpurella''. The

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 ...

Lampronia ''Lampronia'' is a genus of moths of the family Prodoxidae. Diversity The genus has a Holarctic distribution and contains about twenty-five described species. There are additional undescribed species in North America, Japan and Iran. Descripti ...

'' was raised by Stephens in 1829 and is from the Greek ''lampros'' – meaning ″bright: from the bright coloration of some of the species.″ The moth is now in the genus '' Eriocrania'', which 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. ''Erion'' means wool and ''kranion'' means the upper part of the head, which refers to the hair-scales on the top of the head. The specific name ''semipurpurella'' is from ''semi'' – half, and ''purpureus'' – from the forewing colouration.

References

External links

Lepidoptera of Belgium

Lepiforum.de
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1755104 semipurpurella Leaf miners Moths described in 1835 Moths of Asia Moths of Europe Moths of North America Taxa named by James Francis Stephens