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Species Ethmia apicipunctella - Hodges#0978

Representative Images

Ethmia prattiella? - Ethmia apicipunctella Another cute little guy - Ethmia apicipunctella ID needed - Ethmia apicipunctella Ethmia prattiella, Hodges #1007 ? - Ethmia apicipunctella Ethmia Prattiella, Hodges #1007 ? - Ethmia apicipunctella Ethmia ? - Ethmia apicipunctella Ethmia apicipunctella Ethmia apicipunctella? - Ethmia apicipunctella
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 Elachistidae (Grass Miner Moths)
Subfamily Ethmiinae
Genus Ethmia
No Taxon (semilugens group)
Species apicipunctella (Ethmia apicipunctella - Hodges#0978)

Hodges Number

0978

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Ethmia apicipunctella (Chambers, 1875)
Hyponomeuta apicipunctella Chambers, 1875

Identification

Annika Salzberg used the presence of these features to determine her identification
(A) Four black spots grouped closely together
(B) Apical black spot that doesn’t extend to edge of wing (this rules out E. longimaculella coranella)
(c) Geographic range (rules out several other similar-looking species, mainly Canadian and neotropical ones with similar wing spot patterns)

Range

TX, AZ, CO, WY. (1). Specimens from IN (dissected) by Jim Vargo, verified by Powell.
Type Location: TX

See Also

Ethmia prattiella, an uncommon species limited in range to TX and south, has a row of spots parallel to the costal margin, lacking in E. apicipunctella.
Ethmia longimaculella is can be separated using the guide by Annika Salzberg in Identification.

Print References

Chambers, V.T. 1875. Tineina from Texas. The Canadian Entomologist. 7: 8
Powel, 1973:87 (1)