Ptocheuusa paupella explained

Ptocheuusa paupella, the light fleabane neb, is a moth of the family Gelechiidae. It is found from central and southern Europe to the Ural Mountains. It is also found in Turkey and India.[1]

The wingspan is 10–12 mm. The ground colour is buff, streaked with whitish and with darker speckling. The forewings are light ochreous-yellow, with some black scales mostly arranged in longitudinal rows; margins, a median longitudinal streak from base to middle, an indistinct inwardly oblique slender fascia before middle and another at 3/4, and sometimes two or three faint longitudinal lines in disc posteriorly white. Hindwings are pale grey. The larva is pale yellowish; head and two spots on 2 dark fuscous, head pale brown.[2]

Adults are on wing in June and again from August to September.[3]

The larvae feed in the seedheads of Pulicaria dysenterica, Centaurea nigra and Inula crithmoides.[4]

Notes and References

  1. et al. 2010: The gelechiid fauna of the southern Ural Mountains, part II: list of recorded species with taxonomic notes (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae). Zootaxa, 2367: 1–68. Preview
  2. Meyrick, E., 1895 A Handbook of British Lepidoptera MacMillan, London pdf Keys and description
  3. https://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?bf=748 UKmoths
  4. http://www.microlepidoptera.nl/soorten/species.php?speciescode=330270&p=1 microlepidoptera.nl