''Idioglossa polliacola'' is a tiny species of
moth of the
family Batrachedridae.
Taxonomy
It was described as a new species and placed in the family Batrachedridae by
Kazuhiro Sugisima
Kazuhiro is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include:
*Kazuhiro Fujita, Japanese manga artist
*Kazuhiro Furuhashi, Japanese anime director and supervisor
*Kazuhiro Hamanaka, professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighte ...
and Yutaka Arita in 2000. Arita had studied the unknown species on and off for a number of decades before it was identified as a type of ''
Idioglossa
''Idioglossa'' is a genus of moths of the family Batrachedridae.
Taxonomy
The genus was created by Thomas de Grey, 6th Baron Walsingham in 1881 to house the new species '' Idioglossa bigemma''. Because Lord Walsingham had created a monotypic ge ...
''.
It is known from
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 ...
, where it is quite abundant in the forests of
Honshu.
[
]
Description
The wingspan is 8–9.7 mm. The fore-wings of this species are chrome-yellowish with four metallic greyish markings.Sugisima, K. & Arita, Y., 2000. A new species of a gelechioid genus, Idioglossa Walsingham (Lepidoptera, Batrachedridae, Batrachedrinae), from Japan. - Transactions of the Lepidopterological Society of Japan 51(4), 319-336.
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Ecology
The caterpillars use the Commelinaceae plant ''Pollia japonica
''Pollia japonica'', known as East Asian pollia in English, yabumyoga () in Japanese, and dùruò () in Chinese, is a perennial flower native to East Asia. Its niche is forests 0–1200 m. It is native in Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, ...
'', a common, herbaceous, understory, ground-covering plant in Japanese woodlands, as a host plant. They feed on the undersides of the leaves, each caterpillar individually constructing an elaborate web of silken sheets held off the lower surface of the leaf by tiny pillars of its own 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 G ...
. The caterpillars furthermore always chew a small hole through the leaf as an extra escape hatch, rapidly flipping to a specially constructed silken pouch on the upper leaf surface when potential danger nears. The caterpillar remains inconspicuously hidden under this sheet throughout its development. The cocoons are constructed on the upper leaf surface near the midrib.[
]
Related pages
* List of moths of Japan
References
jpmoths.org: images of this species
Moths described in 2000
Batrachedridae
{{Batrachedridae-stub