''Conopomorpha flueggella'' is a

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

of the family

Gracillariidae Gracillariidae is an important family of insects in the order Lepidoptera and the principal family of leaf miners that includes several economic, horticultural or recently invasive pest species such as the horse-chestnut leaf miner, ''Cameraria ...

. It is known from

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

.Taxonomy and biology of two seed-parasitic gracillariid moths (Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae), with description of a new species
/ref>

Adult

The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is 8-15.5 mm. The head is grey to greyish brown and the frons is greyish white. The thorax and tegula are dark brown. The forewing is narrow and the costal and dorsal margins are nearly parallel. The ground colour is greyish brown to dark brown. The hindwing and cilia are greyish brown and the abdomen is grey, although the first two segments are shining white. It is similar to ''

Conopomorpha litchiella ''Conopomorpha litchiella'' is a moth of the family Gracillariidae. It is known from Australia, China (Fujian), India (Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal), Malaysia (Selangor), Nepal, Taiwan and Thailand. The larvae feed on ''Senna ...

'', but distinguishable by the uniformly greyish brown to dark brown forewing with three pairs of stripes and differences in the genitalia. Furthermore, in ''Conopomorpha litchiella'', the forewing is whitish yellow in distal portion and the

larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

is yellowish green.

Egg

The egg is flat, elliptic and about 0.3 mm in length and 0.2 mm in width. There is a transparent membrane in the surface and an irregular meshy stripe on the egg shell. It is milky white and semitransparent but turns straw yellow when close to hatching.

Larva

Young

instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'' 'form, likeness') is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, which occurs between each moult (''ecdysis'') until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to ...

larvae are flat, yellowish white, semitransparent and with distinct segments. Mature larvae are 5.5-7.0 mm. The head is deep brown and the anterior half to two-thirds of each segment on the thorax and abdomen is red, while the remainder is white.

Pupa

The pupa is 4–6 mm, fusiform and greenish yellow in the early pupal stage, changing gradually to yellowish brown and eventually blackish brown before eclosion (emergence).

Cocoon

The cocoon is 7–9 mm, white, flat elliptic, with some white grains attached on surface.

Life history

There are two generations per year in Tianjin, China. Mature larvae quit the fruits of their food plant before they are ripe and pupate on leaves or leaf litter. The pupal stage lasts from nine to twelve days. Adults of the second generation hibernate. Adults occur from May to the first ten days of June, and from the last ten days of June to the first ten days of August. Adults can emerge during the whole day, but the peak occurs in the morning. The mating occurs usually in the morning. At night, the moths are actively drinking nectar and ovipositing. A parasitic

Ichneumonid The Ichneumonidae, also known as ichneumon wasps, ichneumonid wasps, ichneumonids, or Darwin wasps, are a family of parasitoid wasps of the insect order Hymenoptera. They are one of the most diverse groups within the Hymenoptera with roughly 25,0 ...

species was reared from pupae collected in the field.

Food plant

The larvae feed on the seeds of ''

Flueggea suffruticosa ''Flueggea suffruticosa'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Phyllanthaceae. It is a deciduous shrub that is native to East Asia. It is one of the 50 fundamental herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine, where it has the name ''yī ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5162185 Conopomorpha Moths described in 2011