''Prays fraxinella'', the ash bud moth, 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

Plutellidae The Plutellidae are a family of moths commonly known as the diamondback moths, named after the diamondback moth (''Plutella xylostella'') of European origin. It was once considered to have three subfamilies: Plutellinae, Praydinae, and Scythropi ...

. It is found in

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 ...

. 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 14–18 mm. The head is white or greyish ochreous. Forewings are white or greyish-ochreous; some blackish dorsal strigulae; a triangular blackish blotch, lighter or mixed with whitish on costa, extending along costa from near base to 2/3; some irregular blackish marks towards termen; sometimes the whole wing is unicolorous dark fuscous. Hind wings are rather dark grey. The larva is greenish, marbled with red -brown above; dorsal line deep green; head pale brown, dark-spotted; 2 with two black spots.Meyrick, E., 1895 ''A Handbook of British Lepidoptera'' MacMillan, Londo
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Keys and description Adults are on wing from May to June and again in August in two generations depending on the location. The larvae feed on '' Fraxinus excelsior'' and ''

Fraxinus ornus ''Fraxinus'' (), commonly called ash, is a genus of flowering plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae. It contains 45–65 species of usually medium to large trees, mostly deciduous, though a number of subtropical species are evergr ...

''. 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 consists of an irregular small corridor with dispersed black

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 ...

. Often the corridor widens in the end into an irregular blotch with much less frass. The mine may begin at an egg shell, but the larvae can leave their mine and start a new one elsewhere in the leaf. In the latter case the corridor begins with a small round opening. Before the leaf is shed the larva leaves the mine and bores into the bark, where it hibernates. After hibernation they live as shoot borer or free among spun leaves. ''Prays fraxinella'' has two colour forms, the typical white and black colouration and the melanic form ''f.rustica''. Recently, the form ''f.rustica'', that has an orange head has been separated into an entirely new species, ''

Prays ruficeps ''Prays ruficeps'' is a moth of the family Plutellidae. It is found in Northern and Central Europe. The wingspan is 14–17 mm. The larvae feed on ash (''Fraxinus excelsior ''Fraxinus excelsior'', known as the ash, or European ash or ...

''.

References

*A. Maitland Emmet and John R. Langmaid eds., 2002 ''

The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland ''The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland'' (abbreviated to ''MBGBI'' or ''MOGBI'') is a multi-volume reference work on the Lepidoptera of the British Isles. The original publisher of this series was Curwen Books who published vol ...

'' Volume 3 (Yponomeutidae to Elachistidae) Curwen books *Bjerkander, C. (1784) Insect-Calender, for år 1784. ''Kongl. Vetenskaps Academiens nya Handlingar'' 5: 319-329. Stockholm (Johan Georg Lange). *Millard, P. (2013) ''Prays fraxinella'' (Bjerkander) (Lep.: Praydidae) is not monophagous on Ash. ''The Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation'' 125 (5): 171. *Stainton, H. T. (1870) ''The natural history of the Tineina'' 11: I-XIII, 1-330, pl. I-VIII. London (John van Voorst) – Paris (Deyrolle) – Berlin (E. S. Mittler und Sohn). as ''Prays curtisellus''.

External links

Swedish Moths

UKmoths

Plant Parasites of Europe
{{Taxonbar, from=Q458535 Plutellidae Moths described in 1784 Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Taxa named by Clas Bjerkander