Species Epiblema minutana - Minute Ragweed Borer - Hodges#3172.1

3172.1

Epiblema minutana (Kearfott, 1905)

Eucosma minutana Kearfott, 1905 (1)

Eucosma antaxia Meyrick, 1920 (unnecessary replacement name for minutana)

Eucosma minutana (Kearfott, 1905) is raised from synonymy of Epiblema strenuana to full species status in Gilligan et al. (2020) (2)

FWL: 4.3–7.9 mm

See Gilligan et al. (2020) (2)

Additionally, based on a review of minutana and strenuana specimens in the Mississippi Entomological Museum, Richard Brown reported, "In all cases, the front of as well as dorsal surfaces of labial palpi are white in minutana, but the vertex (top) of head was brownish or pale, but not white. In contrast, the all strenuana had heads with a brownish front and most had brownish palps, with a few having pale scales on medial and dorsal surfaces." (pers. comm. 29 viii 2020) These characters are not always clearly visible in photos and may not be 100% consistent for all populations.

Type Locality: New Jersey.

Epiblema strenuana averages larger broader forewings, probably not noticeable in live images. See redescriptions for both species in Gilligan et al. (2020) (2).

Blanchard, 1979 (3)

Gilligan et al., 2020 (2)

Kearfott, 1905 (1)

Moth Photographers Group (MPG) (4)

The Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) (5)