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Species Ethmia arctostaphylella - Hodges#0979

Black/white moth with yellow abdomen - Ethmia arctostaphylella White and gray moth - Ethmia arctostaphylella Ethmia arctostaphylella ? - Ethmia arctostaphylella Twirler Moth - Ethmia arctostaphylella Ethmia - Ethmia arctostaphylella Ethmia - Ethmia arctostaphylella Twirler Moth - Ethmia arctostaphylella Arizona Moth - Ethmia arctostaphylella
Show images of: caterpillars · adults · both
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
Superfamily Gelechioidea (Twirler Moths and kin)
Family Depressariidae
Subfamily Ethmiinae
Genus Ethmia
No Taxon (semilugens group)
Species arctostaphylella (Ethmia arctostaphylella - Hodges#0979)
Hodges Number
0979
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
original combination Psecadia arctostaphylella Walsingham, 1880 (1)
Size
forewing length 8.5 - 14 mm (2)
Range
southern Oregon to northern Baja California and northern Arizona (2)
Habitat
occurs almost everywhere that mountain balm or yerba santa, Eriodictyon (Hydrophyllaceae), flourishes, most often in disturbed sites such as along rural roadsides (2)
Season
adults fly February to October, multivoltine (1)
Food
mountain balm or yerba santa, Eriodictyon californicum, Eriodictyon crassifolium (2)
Life Cycle
at maturity larvae pupate on the host leaves or wander (1)
Remarks
Adults rest by day along the midrib of the Eriodictyon leaf, resembling a bird dropping (2)
See Also
Ethmia discostrigella
Ethmia semitenebrella
Internet References
Moth Photographers Group - image of pinned specimen
Works Cited
1.A systematic monograph of New World ethmiid moths (Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea).
Jerry A. Powell. 1973. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 120: 1-312.
2.Moths of Western North America
Powell and Opler. 2009. UC Press.