variabilis

G. variabilis Davis and Pellmyr

Adult Characteristics

The most variable of all Greya species. Wing expanse 12-18 mm. Body pale ochreous to dark brown. Forewings generally with a purplish brown base color, with many patches and streaks of pale ochreous in different patterns. In some individuals, light areas are so extensive as to anastomose. Rare individuals have completely tan colored forwings. Variation is distributed both within and among populations. Pollex of male valva sometimes the result of two or more fused spines.

Assorted G. variabilis from range of species.

Comparison with similar species

Different color forms are often very similar to G. pectinifera, but are readily told apart by the genitalia. In the male, pectinifera has a pectinifer rather than a pollex. In the female, variabilis has lost the signa whereas two prominent signa are present in pectinifera.No other species approaches the general habitus of G. variata. G. kononenkoi is said to differ in having perpendicularly oriented forewing patches, and by having the tergum and sternum of segment VIII of equal length (tergum>sternum in variabilis).

Host, oviposition, and larval feeding habits

Unknown, but individuals often kicked up from areas with Saxifraga spp. (Saxifragaceae).

Geographic Distribution

Widely distributed, from the Chukchi peninsula of northwestern Siberia, the Pribilof Islands, interior Alaska, and several Pleistocene refugia along the North American west coast, including the Queen Charlotte Islands, the Olympic peninsula, and portions of the coastal range of northern Oregon.

Habitat

In the northern portion of the range, the species occur in tundra habitats. In more southern localities, it occurs in moist coniferous forest at intermediate elevation.

Characteristic habitat for G. variabilis on Olympic peninsula, Washington, USA.
See also picture under G. punctiferella.

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.
Kozlov, M.V. 1996. Incurvariidae and Prodoxidae (Lepidoptera) 
          from Siberia and the Russian Far East, with descriptions 
          of two new species. Ent. Fenn. 7:55-62.

Holotype 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: Adult from Pribilof Islands, Alaska, USA.