''Epimartyria pardella'' is a species of

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 ...

belonging to the

Micropterigidae Micropterigoidea is the superfamily of "mandibulate archaic moths", all placed in the single family Micropterigidae, containing currently about twenty living genera. They are considered the most primitive extant lineage of lepidoptera (Kristense ...

family. It was described by

Walsingham Walsingham () is a civil parish in North Norfolk, England, famous for its religious shrines in honour of Mary, mother of Jesus. It also contains the ruins of two medieval Christian monasticism, monastic houses.Ordnance Survey (2002). ''OS Expl ...

, Lord Thomas de Grey, in 1880. Its

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 10–11 mm with a metallic brown forewing featuring three distinctive gold spots. Adults are on wing from early May to mid July and are day active. The larvae feed on

liverworts Liverworts are a group of non-vascular plant, non-vascular embryophyte, land plants forming the division Marchantiophyta (). They may also be referred to as hepatics. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in wh ...

, including ''

Conocephalum conicum ''Conocephalum conicum'', also known as the great scented liverwort or snakeskin liverwort, is a liverwort species in the genus ''Conocephalum''. ''C. conicum'' is part of the ''Conocephalum conicum'' complex, which includes several cryptic speci ...

'' and '' Pellia'' speciesA review of the North American genus Epimartyria (Lepidoptera, Micropterigidae) with a discussion of the larval plastron
/ref> and take about two years to fully develop. The species is found in southern

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

and north-western

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

References

External links

mothphotographersgroup
Micropterigidae Moths described in 1880 Taxa named by Thomas de Grey, 6th Baron Walsingham {{Micropterigidae-stub