''Oecophora bractella'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of gelechioid moth. It belongs to the subfamily

Oecophorinae __NOTOC__ The Oecophorinae are the nominate subfamily of moths in the concealer moth family (Oecophoridae). They are part of the insufficiently studied superfamily Gelechioidea, and like their relatives, the circumscription of this taxon is dis ...

of the concealer moth

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

(Oecophoridae). As the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

of its

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

'' Oecophora'', its affiliations and

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spe ...

(which are not completely known however) determine the delimitation of that family and subfamily. It is native to

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 subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, where it inhabits

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...

. The species is not often found in the outlying regions; in the UK for example it has only been recorded from a few patches of old-growth forest in the

English Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

(e.g.

Wyre Forest __NOTOC__ Wyre Forest is a large, semi-natural (partially unmanaged) woodland and forest measuring which straddles the borders of Worcestershire and Shropshire, England. Knowles Mill, a former corn mill owned by the National Trust, lies wi ...

), southern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and southern

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

(e.g. in the

Wye valley The Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; cy, Dyffryn Gwy) is an internationally important protected landscape straddling the border between England and Wales. The River Wye ( cy, Afon Gwy) is the fourth-longest river in th ...

). The adults'

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 o ...

is 12–16 mm. Conspicuously bicolored black and yellow, they also have some iridescent blue markings on the forewings. The adult moths fly from May to July depending on the location; they are semi- diurnal and can be encountered during the day, but usually are active at

dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's hori ...

. The caterpillars feed on dead and decaying wood, and possibly also on

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

Synonyms

This species has suffered from considerable confusion regarding its scientific name. It was first described by C. Linnaeus in 1758, who named it ''Tinea bractella''. After the genus '' Oecophora'' had been established, its

was set to be the ''Tinea sulphurella'' described by J.C. Fabricius in 1777. But that name was a

junior homonym In biology, a homonym is a name for a taxon that is identical in spelling to another such name, that belongs to a different taxon. The rule in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature is that the first such name to be published is the se ...

and thus invalid; Fabricius had actually described the "proper" ''T. sulphurella'' (nowadays known as '' Esperia sulphurella'') himself, a mere two years earlier. Subsequent authors placed Linnaeus' species in the related genus '' Alabonia'', while Fabricius' homonymy lingered on into the 20th century. Eventually this was all sorted out, when it was realized that the supposedly different species of Linnaeus and Fabricius were one and the same, and ''O. bractella'' has since been known under its current name.Grabe (1942), Pitkin & Jenkins (2004) Invalid scientific names ( junior synonyms and others) of ''Oecophora bractella'' are: * ''Alabonia bracteella'' (''

lapsus In philology, a lapsus (Latin for "lapse, slip, error") is an involuntary mistake made while writing or speaking. Investigations In 1895 an investigation into verbal slips was undertaken by a philologist and a psychologist, Rudolf Meringer and ...

'') * ''Alabonia bractella'' (

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

, 1758) * ''Tinea bractella'' Linnaeus, 1758 * ''Tinea sulphurella'' Fabricius, 1777 (''non'' Fabricius, 1775: preoccupied)

Footnotes

References

* Grabe, Albert (1942): Eigenartige Geschmacksrichtungen bei Kleinschmetterlingsraupen Strange tastes among micromoth caterpillars" ''Zeitschrift des Wiener Entomologen-Vereins'' 27: 105-109 n Germanbr>PDF fulltext
* 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
''Oecophora bractella''
Retrieved 2010-APR-27. * Pitkin, Brian & Jenkins, Paul (2004)
Butterflies and Moths of the World, Generic Names and their Type-species
�
''Oecophora''
Version of 2004-NOV-05. Retrieved 2010-APR-27. * Savela, Markku (2001): Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and some other life forms &ndash

Version of 2001-NOV-07. Retrieved 2010-APR-27.

External links

''Oecophora bractella'' on UKmothsLepiforum.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oecophora Bractella Oecophoridae Moths described in 1758 Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus