Bucculatrix maritima

Bucculatrix maritima is a species of moth of the family Bucculatricidae. It is found in most of Europe (except the Balkan Peninsula), Russia and Japan (the islands of Hokkaido and Honshu).[1] It was first described in 1851 by Henry Tibbats Stainton.

Bucculatrix maritima
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Bucculatricidae
Genus: Bucculatrix
Species:
B. maritima
Binomial name
Bucculatrix maritima
Stainton, 1851

The wingspan is 8–9 mm.The head is pale greyish-ochreous, centre sometimes fuscous. Forewings are light greyish-ochreous, more or less irrorated with fuscous ; a short median streak from base, pairs of costal and dorsal undefined spots before middle and at 3/4 whitish, often very indistinct ; plical and second discal stigmata minute, black. Hindwings are rather dark grey. The larva is pale greyish-green ; dorsal line darker, head yellowish; segment 2 yellowish -grey, blackish- dotted.[2]

Adults are on wing in June and again in August. There are two generations per year.

The larvae feed on sea aster (Aster tripolium). They mine the leaves of their host plant. The mine consists of a long, narrow, corridor with brown or black frass in a central line. The mine may be upper- or lower-surface of even interparenchymatous, and often enters the cortex of the stem. The larva vacates the mine after some time and makes several short full depth blotches. Some larvae keep this habit until short before pupation, others soon begin window-feeding.

References
  1. A revision of the Japanese species of the family Bucculatricidae (Lepidoptera)
  2. Meyrick, E., 1895 A Handbook of British Lepidoptera MacMillan, London pdf This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Keys and description
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