''Scythropia crataegella'', the hawthorn moth, is a species of moth in the family Plutellidae from western Eurasia. It is usually placed in a small

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

Scythropiinae ''Scythropia'' is a genus of moths of the family Plutellidae. It is usually separated in a monotypic subfamily Scythropiinae, but sometimes included in the Yponomeutinae of the Yponomeutidae. They are sometimes called diamondback moths, which ...

, which is sometimes included in the

Yponomeutinae Yponomeutinae is a subfamily of " micromoths" in the lepidopteran family Yponomeutidae (ermine moths). As their scientific name implies, this is the subfamily containing the type genus of the ermine moths, ''Yponomeuta''. The subfamily has world ...

of the Yponomeutidae. Described as ''Phalaena crataegella'' by Linnaeus in 1767, it was made the type species of ''Scythropia'', the only Scythropiinae genus currently recognized, by

Jacob Hübner Jacob Hübner (20 June 1761 – 13 September 1826, in Augsburg) was a German entomologist. He was the author of ''Sammlung Europäischer Schmetterlinge'' (1796–1805), a founding work of entomology. Scientific career Hübner was the author of '' ...

in the 1820s. Initially (in 1796), Hübner had misidentified the grass moth '' Eudonia lacustrata'' – much larger and only distantly related, but somewhat similar in color and pattern – as Linnaeus' ''Phalaena crataegella''. Similarly, a

junior synonym The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...

of this species, ''Tinea cornella'', has frequently been misapplied – and sometimes still is even today – to the fairly closely related apple blossom tineid.

Description and ecology

''S. crataegella'' is a small moth is widespread almost all over Europe; it is absent from Great Britain north of

The Lake District The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...

, and has also not been recorded yet on Iceland and Ireland (where it is probably genuinely absent), in Portugal (where it may be absent), and in Slovenia (where it probably occurs but has not been found yet, as its range includes the surrounding countries). It is quite common throughout its range. The

nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...

adults are attracted to light sources; on Great Britain they are only commonly seen in July, but elsewhere they may be found from late May to September and have two generations per year. The wingspan of adults is 11–15 mm. As usual for the Yponomeutidae, the forewings have a bold black-and-white pattern: two thick but irregular black bands divide the white forewings into roughly equal inner, middle and outer parts, and the white between the bands has numerous small black spots. The hindwings are dusky greyish-brown and unadorned. The body is whitish. The

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...

larvae feed in large groups from the safety of a silken web they produce together; young larvae are

leaf miner A leaf miner is any one of numerous species of insects in which the larval stage lives in, and eats, the leaf tissue of plants. The vast majority of leaf-mining insects are moths (Lepidoptera), sawflies (Symphyta, the mother clade of wasps), ...

s. The mainstay food is leaves of ''

Crataegus ''Crataegus'' (), commonly called hawthorn, quickthorn, thornapple, Voss, E. G. 1985. ''Michigan Flora: A guide to the identification and occurrence of the native and naturalized seed-plants of the state. Part II: Dicots (Saururaceae–Cornacea ...

'' (hawthorn), hence the species' name. But they have also been recorded from other Amygdaloideae, e.g. blackthorn (''Prunus spinosa'') and other '' Prunus'' species, '' Cotoneaster'', as well as '' Malus sylvestris'' and ''

Pyrus Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the family Rosaceae, bearing the po ...

'' (pear).

References

* Fauna Europaea (FE) (2009a)
''Argyresthia (Argyresthia) curvella''
Version 2.1, 2009-DEC-22. Retrieved 2010-MAY-05. * Fauna Europaea (FE) (2009b)
''Scythropia crataegella''
Version 2.1, 2009-DEC-22. Retrieved 2010-MAY-05. * Kimber, Ian

010 010 may refer to: * 10 (number) * 8 (number) in octal numeral notation * Motorola 68010, a microprocessor released by Motorola in 1982 * 010, the telephone area code of Beijing * 010, the Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the R ...

UKMoths &ndash
''Scythropia crataegella''
Retrieved 2010-MAY-05. * Pitkin, Brian & Jenkins, Paul (2004a)
Butterflies and Moths of the World, Generic Names and their Type-species
&ndash
''Dipleurina''
Version of 2004-NOV-05. Retrieved 2011-OCT-14. * Pitkin, Brian & Jenkins, Paul (2004b)
Butterflies and Moths of the World, Generic Names and their Type-species
&ndash
''Scythropia''
Version of 2004-NOV-05. Retrieved 2010-MAY-05. * Savela, Markku (2001): Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and some other life forms &ndash

Version of 2001-NOV-05. Retrieved 2010-MAY-05.

External links

waarneming.nl

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scythropia Crataegella Plutellidae Moths described in 1767 Moths of Asia Moths of Europe Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus