Species Epinotia solandriana - Birch Leafroller - Hodges#3283

3283

Birch-aspen Leafroller

Epinotia solandriana (Linnaeus, 1758)

Phalaena (Tortrix) solandriana Linnaeus, 1758 (1)

Eucosma solandriana

Episagma solandriana

Phylogenetic sequence #621195

Specific epithet in honor of Carl Linnaeus' apostle Daniel Solander (1733-1782). Solander was a botanist and travelled with James Cook to Australia and New Zealand where he penned the manuscript for Primitiae Florae Novae Zelandiae (Beginnings of a New Zealand flora).

Wingspan about 19-21 mm. (2)

Adult - forewing extremely variable in color and pattern - from dark brown with large white triangle along inner margin, to mostly white with sparse blackish markings, to medium brown with dark brown patches, to light brown with large blackish semicircular patch along inner margin (see photos of these 4 variations at Swedish Museum of Natural History); hindwing light grayish-brown with pale fringe.

Larva - early instars whitish-yellow; older instars bluish-gray with black head.

Holarctic: across Eurasia from Japan to the British Isles; in North America from Alaska to Quebec, south in the west to Utah and California.

Larvae feed mainly on buds and leaves of paper birch (Betula papyrifera) in Canada and Alaska, but may also feed on trembling aspen, alder, and yellow birch. in Eurasia, foodplants include birch, hazel, and willow. (1), (3)

One generation per year; overwinters as an egg on roughened bud stalks of hostplant.

Linnaeus, C., 1758. Systema Naturae, 10th ed. (221): 532. (1)

Moth Photographers Group

UK Moths