Cnephasia asseclana

"Cnephasia wahlbomiana" and "Tortrix wahlbomiana" redirect here; for other uses of these names, see below.
Flax tortrix
Mounted specimen
Living adult
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Division: Ditrysia
Family: Tortricidae
Tribe: Cnephasiini
Genus: Cnephasia
Species: C. asseclana
Binomial name
Cnephasia asseclana
(Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775)
Synonyms

Numerous, see text

Cnephasia asseclana, the flax tortrix, is a moth of the family Tortricidae. It is found all over Europe.[1]

The wingspan is 15–18 mm. Adults are on the wing from June to August.

The caterpillars feed on a wide range of herbaceous plants and even[2] dry leaves, and can become a pest. They initially mine the leaves. Later they spin together leaves or flowers for pupation.

Taxonomy

The flax tortrix is part of a cryptic species complex, and its taxonomy has been quite confused. For long, it was known as "C. wahlbomiana", a name that has led to many misidentifications (see below) until it was finally suppressed in favor of C. virgaureana. That, however, subsequently turned out to refer to the same species as the earlier-described C. asseclana, and thus the latter name became the senior synonym. Obsolete scientific names (junior synonyms and others) of C. asseclana are:[3]

"C. wahlbomiana" was also variously applied to C. alticolana, C. cupressivorana, C. communana, C. genitalana, and probably others[4] of the C. asseclana complex. In at least one seminal study, it was even used for Eana derivana as it seems.

Footnotes

  1. See references in Savela (2005)
  2. Grabe (1942)
  3. Chambon (1978), Baixeras et al. (2009), and see references in Savela (2005)
  4. E.g. C. chrysantheana, C. incertana, C. longana or C. pasiuana: Chambon (1978)

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cnephasia asseclana.

External links


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, November 09, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.