''Oecophora bractella'' is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of gelechioid moth, native to Europe but introduced to western North America. It belongs to the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Oecophorinae of the concealer moth

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

(Oecophoridae). As the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

of its

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

'' Oecophora'', its affiliations and

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree or phylogeny is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or Taxon, taxa during a specific time.Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, M ...

(which are not completely known however) determine the delimitation of that family and subfamily.

Habitat

In its native

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, it inhabits

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

. The species is not often found in the outlying regions; in the UK for example it has only been recorded from a few patches of

old-growth forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Natio ...

in the

English Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefordshi ...

(e.g. Wyre Forest), southern

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, and southern

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

(e.g. in the Wye valley).

Appearance and ecology

The adults'

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 12–16 mm. Conspicuously bicolored black and yellow, they also have some iridescent blue markings on the forewings. The adult moths fly from May to July depending on the location; they are semi- diurnal and can be encountered during the day, but usually are active at

dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the diffuse sky radiation, appearance of indirect sunlight being Rayleigh scattering, scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc ha ...

. The

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

s feed on dead and decaying wood, and possibly also on

fungi A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...

Synonyms

This species has suffered from considerable confusion regarding its

scientific name In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

. It was first described by C. Linnaeus in 1758, who named it ''Tinea bractella''. After the genus '' Oecophora'' had been established, its

was set to be the ''Tinea sulphurella'' described by J.C. Fabricius in 1777. But that name was a

junior homonym In biology, a homonym is a name for a taxon that is identical in spelling to another such name, that belongs to a different taxon. The rule in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature is that the first such name to be published is the s ...

and thus invalid; Fabricius had actually described the "proper" ''T. sulphurella'' (nowadays known as '' Esperia sulphurella'') himself, a mere two years earlier. Subsequent authors placed Linnaeus' species in the related genus '' Alabonia'', while Fabricius' homonymy lingered on into the 20th century. Eventually this was all sorted out, when it was realized that the supposedly different species of Linnaeus and Fabricius were one and the same, and ''O. bractella'' has since been known under its current name.Grabe (1942), Pitkin & Jenkins (2004) Invalid scientific names ( junior synonyms and others) of ''Oecophora bractella'' are: * ''Alabonia bracteella'' ('' lapsus'') * ''Alabonia bractella'' (

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

, 1758) * ''Tinea bractella'' Linnaeus, 1758 * ''Tinea sulphurella'' Fabricius, 1777 (''non'' Fabricius, 1775: preoccupied)

Footnotes

References

* Grabe, Albert (1942): Eigenartige Geschmacksrichtungen bei Kleinschmetterlingsraupen Strange tastes among micromoth caterpillars" ''Zeitschrift des Wiener Entomologen-Vereins'' 27: 105-109 n Germanbr>PDF fulltext
* Kimber, Ian 010 UKMoths &ndash
''Oecophora bractella''
Retrieved 2010-APR-27. * Pitkin, Brian & Jenkins, Paul (2004)
Butterflies and Moths of the World, Generic Names and their Type-species
�
''Oecophora''
Version of 2004-NOV-05. Retrieved 2010-APR-27. * Savela, Markku (2001): Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and some other life forms &ndash

Version of 2001-NOV-07. Retrieved 2010-APR-27.

External links

''Oecophora bractella'' on UKmothsLepiforum.de
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oecophora Bractella Oecophoridae Moths described in 1758 Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus