Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Bucculatrix cuneigera Meyrick, 1919
Bucculatrix errans
Size
Meyrick (1919) listed the wingspan 9-10 mm.
BOLD listed the wingspan 9-10.5 mm.
(1)Identification
Meyrick (1919) original description is available online in the print references.
Identification: White thorax and brown wings.
Head: White, shiny. Tuft of hair on top of head has brown center.
Antenna: White eye-cap at antenna base. Segments pale yellowish to brownish.
Thorax: Thorax white.
Forewing: Dark brownish-gray with bright white marks. Four white marks across costal margin. At base is a long triangle with short side along wing margin. A stripe near wing center slants to middle of wing; another, slightly shorter stripe about equal distance away. The last mark is a white dash with a black spot at apex of wing tip; white continues onto fringe. On the inner wing margin a wide crescent mark at center and two triangle marks near wing tip. Wing tip is darkly feathered and protrudes up when moth is at rest. Rest of fringe is lighter brown.
Hindwing: Dark brownish-gray, fringe same.
Legs: Variable darker in front to light brown on underside. Feet lighter.
Abdomen: Abdomen dark brown-black. Tuft at tip pale, grayish-white.
Range
U.S.A.: Ohio, N. Carolina, New York, Massachusetts, Maine.
Canada: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Ontario.
Habitat
Deciduous or mixed forests with wood asters.
Food
Asters Symphyotrichum shortii in south, northern populations use other Wood Asters Symphyotrichum species.
Life Cycle
Female lays eggs on aster leaves about June. Larvae are leaf-miners and remain inside leaf. In the fall, they form a rounded chamber inside the leaf to overwinter. In spring, the larvae mine into the tip of new growth and become stem borers, feeding down the stem about 20 mm. When fully grown, a hole is cut in the stem, and larva leaves the plant to pupate on nearby twigs and leaves.
Larvae are yellowish-white with a darker yellowish head. Two black spots behind the head. Cocoon is white to pale yellow with 7 or 8 longitudinal ridges. Mortality is high, apparently due to lack of new shoots in spring.
Remarks
Types:
Holotype as Bucculatrix cuneigera by Meyrick, 1916. Locality: Orillia, Ontario. In the British Museum.
Holotype as Bucculatrix errans male by Braun, 1920. Locality: Cincinnati, Ohio. In author’s (Braun) collection which was given to the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences – now the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Pennsylvania.
See Also
Similar Species: B. angustata also has dark background and white marks, but lacks the white thorax.
Internet References
Entomological News, 1920, Vol. 31, pp. 77 to 78 by Braun.
Cornell University, Memoirs of the Agricultural Experimental Station, 1923, Vol. 68, pg. 159.
Transactions of the American Entomological Society, 1926, Vol. 53, pg. 195 by Braun.
Memoirs of the American Entomological Society, 1963, #18: Bucculatrix in America by Braun.
