''Scrobipalpa artemisiella'' (thyme 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 Gelechiidae. It is found in most of Europe (except

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and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

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and

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

through the

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and

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and mn, Эрхүү, ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 617,473 as of the 2010 Census, Irkutsk is ...

and

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

. It has also been recorded from North America, but this records requires confirmation. 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 10–12 mm. Terminal joint of palpi as long as second or hardly longer. Forewings are dark brown, whitish -sprinkled, more or less streaked longitudinally with ferruginous, dorsal area visually lighter; stigmata somewhat elongate, black, first discal rather beyond plical; usually a black mark on fold beyond plical ; some black dots before apex and on termen. Hindwings 1, light grey, darker terminally. The larva is greenish ; dorsal and subdorsal lines darker ; head pale brown; 2 brown-marked. Adults are on wing from June to July. The larvae feed on '' Thymus praecox arcticus'', '' Thymus pulegioides'', '' Thymus serpyllum'' and ''

Satureja montana ''Satureja montana'' (winter savory or mountain savory), is a perennial, semi-evergreen herb in the family Lamiaceae, native to warm temperate regions of southern Europe, the Mediterranean, and Africa. It has dark green leaves and summer flower ...

''. They initially

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, brown, full depth blotch mine without

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 ...

. The mine is made young leaves. They feed from a protective spinning. Older larvae leave the mine and engage in upper-surface window feeding, while hidden among spun leaves.bladmineerders.nl
/ref> Larvae can be found from May to June. They are dull brownish green with five purplish-brown length lines and a black head.

Subspecies

*''Scrobipalpa artemisiella artemisiella'' *''Scrobipalpa artemisiella oreocyrniella'' Petry, 1904 (Sardinia, Corsica)

References

Moths described in 1833 Scrobipalpa Moths of Japan Moths of Europe Moths of Asia {{Scrobipalpa-stub