Adela cuprella

Adela cuprella is a moth of the Adelidae family and are found in most of Europe. It was first described by Michael Denis & Ignaz Schiffermüller in 1775 and the type locality is from Austria. They can be found flying around sallows (Salix) species during the day in April and May.

Adela cuprella
Female
Male
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Lepidoptera
Family:
Adelidae
Genus:
Adela
Species:
A. cuprella
Binomial name
Adela cuprella
Synonyms
  • Tinea cuprella Denis & Schiffermuller, 1775

Description

The wingspan is 14–17 mm.[1] The forewings are bronzy metallic with a purplish sheen and towards costa purple-tinged. Hindwings are dark purplish-fuscous. The head in males is black, in female ferruginous, the face in females is hairy. Antennae in males is 2.5, white, towards the base blackish ringed; in females it is I.25 black and not thickened towards apex white. [2]

Adults are active by day and are on wing from mid April to early May, flying around willows.[3]

Life cycle

The moths are univoltine (i.e. one generation a year) and visit the flowers of sallows, usually high up. In some years, they can be numerous and in other years, scarce or absent. The females lay their eggs on the catkins of sallows. On hatching, the larvae drop to the ground and feed on dead leaf litter from a flat, portable case built from leaf fragments.[3] The case is an elongate-oval shape with each half made of several, roughly crescentic pieces of dead sallow leaves. The larvae feed from May onwards and can overwinter two or three times. Pupation takes place within the case in March.[4]

Distribution

It is found in most of Europe, except Portugal, Slovenia and most of the Balkan Peninsula.[5]

References
  1. microlepidoptera.nl Archived 1 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Meyrick, E., 1895 A Handbook of British Lepidoptera MacMillan, London pdf This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Keys and description
  3. Emmet, A M (1983). Heath, John (ed.). The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland. Volume 1. Colchester: Harley Books. pp. 296–7. ISBN 0 946589 15 1.
  4. Emmet, A M, ed. (1988). A Field Guide To The Smaller British Lepidoptera (Second ed.). London: British Entomological and Natural History Society. p. 37. ISBN 0 9502891 6 7.
  5. "Adela cuprella (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775)". Fauna Europaea. Retrieved 23 November 2018.


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