Moths of North Carolina
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View PDFNepticulidae Members:
Ectoedemia Members:
14 NC Records

Ectoedemia rubifoliella (Clemens, 1860) - No Common Name


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Taxonomy
Superfamily: Nepticuloidea Family: NepticulidaeP3 Number: 160096.00 MONA Number: 48.00
Comments: This genus includes 15 Nearctic species of very small, leaf-mining moths.
Species Status: Wilkinson and Newton (1981) divided the North American Ectoedemia into four species groups based primarily on genitalic differences. The rubifoliella group consists of three species (E. rubifoliella, E. ulmella and E. quadrinotata) that have similar genitalic characteristics.
Identification
Field Guide Descriptions: Online Photographs: MPG, BugGuide, GBIF, BOLDTechnical Description, Adults: Braun, 1917; Wilkinson and Scoble (1979).Technical Description, Immature Stages: Braun, 1917                                                                                 
Adult Markings: The following description of the adults is based on Braun (1917) and Wilkinson and Scoble (1979). The palps are whitish and lustrous, and the vertex and the tuft on the front of head are ochreous. The collar between the head and the thorax is off-white to pale ochreous. The eye-cap is shining silvery white, and the antenna is purplish gray. The thorax and forewing are brownish black, with a shining silvery or faintly golden fascia at the middle of the wing. The fascia is convex outwardly and somewhat narrowed in its middle (sometimes almost interrupted). The cilia are whitish, terminally broad and rounded, and heavily irrorate with dark brown scales. The hindwing and cilia are gray, and the legs are silvery gray. Ectoedemia rubifoliella resembles E. virgulae but is generally darker and the fascia is broader. The males lack the chitinous plate of the hindwing that is found on E. virgulae (Wilk and Scoble, 1979). These species also differ in their host plants and the overall shape of the male genitalia.
Wingspan: 4.4 mm for one male and 4.0-4.2 for four females (Wilkinson and Scoble, 1979).
Adult Structural Features: The following description of the genitalia is from Wilkinson and Scoble (1979). Males: The tegumen is rounded and produced into a short pseuduncus. The saccus is weakly bilobed, and the gnathos has a pair of long curved horns that taper only slightly posteriorly and are joined medially. The valves reach the base of the pseuduncus and are broader basally, curve to the tip, and are rather squat. The transtilla have their lateral arms widely separated by a long horizontal bar. The aedeagus has a pair of anellar projections and the cornutus comprising a curved and striate thickening. Females: The anal papillae have a pair of setose lobes. The ductus bursae is less than twice the length of the apophyses. The bursa copulatrix is covered with small pectinations, with two large signa. The anterior apophyses are slightly curved and joined by a long, thin sclerite. The posterior apophyses are long and thin towards the setose lobes.
Ectoedemia rubifoliella is a member of the rubifoliella group of Wilkinson and Newton (1981). Members of this group (E. rubifoliella, E. ulmella and E. quadrinotata) have the pseuduncus prolonged backwards, but bluntly rounded. The aedeagi have moderately large and similar anellar projections in males, and the females lack a thickened or sclerotized collicula. The nature of the pseuduncus, and the relatively short aedeagus, separates the male genitalia of E. rubifoliella from those of E. ulmella and E. quadrinotata, while the females differ only in the relative sizes of the signa.
Immatures and Development: The larva initially forms a very narrow linear mine and deposits frass in a broken central line. The linear mine closely follows a vein or leaf margin before eventually expanding into an elongate or irregular blotch with scattered frass (Braun, 1917; Eiseman, 2019). The pale green larva eventually exits the mine through a slit and spins a dark brown cocoon.
Larvae ID Requirements: Identifiable from good quality photos, especially where associated with known host plants.
Distribution in North Carolina
Distribution: Ectoedemia rubifoliella in found in eastern North America from southeastern Canada (Ontario; Quebec; Nova Scotia) and Maine, southward to Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. As of 2022, we have scattered records from the Piedmont and lower elevations in the Blue Ridge.
County Map: Clicking on a county returns the records for the species in that county.
Flight Dates:
 High Mountains (HM) ≥ 4,000 ft.
 Low Mountains (LM) < 4,000 ft.
 Piedmont (Pd)
 Coastal Plain (CP)

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