''Cremastobombycia ignota'' is a
moth
Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...
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
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
,
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
,
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
,
,
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
and
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
in the United States.
Global Taxonomic Database of Gracillariidae (Lepidoptera)
/ref>
The 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 of ...
is 6.5-7.5 mm.
The larva
A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle.
The ...
e feed on '' Elephantopus'' species (including ''Elephantopus carolinianus
''Elephantopus carolinianus'', with the common names Carolina elephantsfoot or leafy elephant's foot, is a species of flowering plant in the Asteraceae family. It is native to the south-central and southeastern United States.
Description
''Elep ...
''), ''Helianthus
''Helianthus'' () is a genus comprising about 70 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae commonly known as sunflowers. Except for three South American species, the species of ''Helianthus'' are native to ...
'' species (including ''Helianthus annuus
The common sunflower (''Helianthus annuus'') is a large annual forb of the genus ''Helianthus'' grown as a crop for its edible oily seeds. Apart from cooking oil production, it is also used as livestock forage (as a meal or a silage plant), as b ...
'' and ''Helianthus giganteus
''Helianthus giganteus'', the giant sunflower or tall sunflower, is a species of ''Helianthus'' native to the eastern United States and eastern and central Canada, from Newfoundland west to Alberta south to Minnesota, Mississippi, and South Car ...
''), '' Ridania alternifolia'', ''Verbesina
''Verbesina'', many species of which have crownbeard as part of their common names, is a genus of flowering plants, in the family Asteraceae. It is a large genus of about 350 species.
All the species bear white or yellow flowers similar to small ...
'' species (including ''Verbesina alternifolia
''Verbesina alternifolia'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae
The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. ...
'' and ''Verbesina virginica
''Verbesina virginica'', known by the common names white crownbeard, or frostweed is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae.
It is native to the Southeastern United States, where it is found in calcareous soil, often in bottomland ...
''). They mine
Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to:
Extraction or digging
* Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging
*Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine
Grammar
*Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun
...
the leaves of their host plant. The mine has the form of a rather large tentiform mine on the underside of the leaf. The loosened epidermis becomes much wrinkled in the later stages, and the mine is distinctly visible on the upper surface as a tubercular swelling. The larva, which is pale in the earlier stages, becomes dark brown just before pupation. The dense white elongate cocoon, ornamented with longitudinal ridges, is suspended in the mine at each end by two silken threads.
References
External links
mothphotographersgroup
Lithocolletinae
{{Lithocolletinae-stub
Moths of North America
Lepidoptera of the United States
Moths described in 1873
Taxa named by Heinrich Frey
Taxa named by Jacob Boll
Leaf miners