''Haplochrois theae'' is a species 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 ...

of the family

Elachistidae The Elachistidae (grass-miner moths) are a family of small moths in the superfamily Gelechioidea. Some authors lump about 3,300 species in eight subfamilies here, but this arrangement almost certainly results in a massively paraphyletic and comp ...

. It is found from 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 ...

and

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...

to China. It probably originated from

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

. During the 20th century, this species was a serious pest on tea plantations in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and to a lesser degree, in the Krasnodar Territory of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. 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 9–12 mm. Adults are on wing from June to August in one generation per year. The larvae feed on '' Camellia sinensis'' and ''

Camellia japonica ''Camellia japonica'', known as common camellia, or Japanese camellia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Theaceae. There are thousands of cultivars of ''C. japonica'' in cultivation, with many colors and forms of flowers. In the U.S. ...

'' and is considered a pest.Sjaak (J.C.) Koster, Hikmet Özbek, Irfan Aslan, Twan (A.L.M.) Rutten (2004): ''Blastodacna libanotica Diakonoff, 1939 – a pest on pear in Turkey (Agonoxenidae).'' Nota lepidopterologica 27(1): Seite 33-40C. Lopez-Vaamonde et al. (2010): ''Lepidoptera. Chapter 11.'' In: A. Roques et al. (Hrg.) Alien terrestrial arthropods of Europe. BioRisk 4(2): Seite 603–668. 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 small fleck mine. Up to forty mines can be found in a single leaf. Larvae can be found from late summer to fall and again (after overwintering) in the second half of March. At this point, they feed on the young shoots. They mine in the pith. Pupation takes place from the end of May to the end of July within the mine.

References

Moths described in 1916 Elachistidae Moths of Asia {{Elachistidae-stub