''Emmelina buscki'' 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 ...
of the family
Pterophoridae
The Pterophoridae or plume moths are a family of Lepidoptera with unusually modified wings. Though they belong to the Apoditrysia like the larger moths and the butterflies, unlike these they are tiny and were formerly included among the assembla ...
first described by
William Barnes and
Arthur Ward Lindsey
Arthur Ward Lindsey (1894, Council Bluffs, Iowa – 1963, Lancaster, Ohio) was an American entomologist.
Arthur Ward Lindsey was educated at Morningside College in Sioux City gaining his Bachelor of Arts in 1916. Collecting butterflies from his y ...
in 1921. It is found in North America.
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 ...
is 20–21 mm. Adults are tawny or brownish white, the abdomen with a slight brown dorsal stripe and some brown scales on the sides and below. The forewings are whitish tawny with scattered brown scales forming a dot in the cell and a dash before the cleft which projects toward a costal spot beyond the base of the cleft. The fringes are gray brown. The hindwings and fringes are gray brown. Adults are on wing in February, August, September and December.
The larvae feed on ''
Ipomoea indica
''Ipomoea indica'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Convolvulaceae, known by several common names, including blue morning glory, oceanblue morning glory, ''koali awa'', and blue dawn flower. It bears heart-shaped or 3-lobed leaves ...
''.
Annotated Checklist of the Pterophoridae (Lepidoptera) of Florida
/ref> They skeletonize the young leaves of their host plant.
References
Moths described in 1921
Oidaematophorini
{{Oidaematophorini-stub