''Opostegoides minodensis'' 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

Opostegidae Opostegidae or "white eyecap moths" is a family of insects in the order Lepidoptera that is characterised by particularly large eyecaps over the compound eyes (see also Nepticulidae, Bucculatricidae, Lyonetiidae). Opostegidae are most diverse in ...

. It is found in

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 ...

. There is probably one generation per year with adults on wing from the end of June to mid-July. The larvae feed on ''

Betula platyphylla ''Betula platyphylla'', the Asian white birch or Japanese white birch, is a tree species in the family Betulaceae. It can be found in subarctic and temperate Asia in Japan, China, Korea, Mongolia, and Russian Far East and Siberia Siberia ( ...

'' var. ''japonica''. They mine the cambium of their host plant, creating slender elliptical mines. Mine traces, or pith flecks, are found on both sides of the winter ring layer, with the smaller, younger mines always on the inner side of the ring and the larger, more mature mines on the outside.

External links

A Revision of the New World Plant-Mining Moths of the Family Opostegidae (Lepidoptera: Nepticuloidea)Distribution of pith flecks caused by the cambium miner, Opostegoides minodensis, in Japanese white birch
Opostegidae Moths of Japan Moths described in 1982 {{Opostegidae-stub