punctiferella

G. punctiferella (Walsingham)

Adult Characteristics

Wing expanse 12.5-19 mm. Forewings pale stramineous, with 15-25 scattered brown spots and sometimes coalescing to form short streaks. Rare specimens have many spots lost, and only those in the apical portion are present. Hindwings pale to median gray. bronzy iridescence in the female, suffused with white ot whitish yellow, forming more or less distinct wing patterning. A rhomboid pale subtornal patch creates an arrowhead when the moth is at rest. Hindwing usually of the same shade as forewing or darker, without pattern.

Comparison with similar species

The allopatric G. piperella and females of G. mitellae can create problems of identification. Greya piperella is a larger, paler moth with distinct pinprick spots and no coalescence. In the male punctiferella, the cucullus is longer than broad beyond the pollex whereas it is as long as it is broad in piperella. Mitellae females are smaller, have more rounded forewing shape, and dark brown hindwings.

Hosts, oviposition, and larval feeding habits

The species feeds on Tiarella trifoliata, Tolmiea menziesii and Tellima grandiflora (Saxifragaceae). Eggs are laid in peduncles and in floral pedicels. Larvae evidently mine in the vegetative tissue, but nothing is known about later instars.

Female ovipositing into peduncle of T. trifoliata.

Geographic Distribution

In the Pacific coastal ranges, the western slopes of the Cascades, and in portions of Sierra Nevada from southeastern Alaska in the north to the Mendocino region of northern California.

Habitat

In understory of moist, coniferous or mixed conifer-Alnus forests. The species coexists with variabilis, pectinifera and obscuromaculata.

Typical habitat on the Olympic peninsula, Clallam Co., Washington, USA.

References

Davis, D.R., O. Pellmyr & J.N. Thompson. 1992. Biology and systematics 
          of Greya Busck and Tetragma n. gen. (Lepidoptera: Prodoxidae). 
          Smiths. Contrib. Zool. 524:1-88.

Lectotype in USNM.

About this page

Olle Pellmyr
E-mail: pellmyr@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu.
Dept of Biology, Vanderbilt University, Box 1812-B Nashville, TN 37235, USA

Title Illustration: Female from Clallam Co., Washington, USA.