Bryotropha domestica

Bryotropha domestica is a moth of the family Gelechiidae. It is found from Ireland to Germany, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria and from the Benelux to the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, Crete and Cyprus. It is also found in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, the Middle East, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Moss being eaten by larva
Larva

Bryotropha domestica
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Lepidoptera
Family:
Gelechiidae
Genus:
Bryotropha
Species:
B. domestica
Binomial name
Bryotropha domestica
(Haworth, 1828)[1]
Synonyms
  • Recurvaria domestica Haworth, 1828
  • Gelechia domesticella Doubleday, 1859
  • Lita punctata Staudinger in Kalchberg, 1876
  • Gelechia domestica var. salmonis Walsingham, 1908
  • Bryotropha algiricella Chrétien, 1917

The wingspan is 12–13 mm.[2] The forewings are dark greyish brown, heavily mottled with pale ochreous. The hindwings are very pale glossy grey, but darker towards the apex.[3] Adults are on wing from mid-May to early August in one generation per year.[4]

The larvae feed on various mosses growing on walls. They feed from within a silken gallery. Pupation takes place within an open network cocoon in this gallery. The larvae have a reddish-brown body.

References
  1. Fauna Europaea
  2. microlepidoptera.nl Archived May 1, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Karsholt, Ole & Twan Rutten, 2005, the genus Bryotropha Heinemann in the western palaearctic (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 148: 77-207. Abstract and full article:
  4. UKmoths


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