Kingdom Animalia Class Insecta Infraorder Heteroneura Rank Species | Phylum Arthropoda Order Lepidoptera Family Momphidae | |
Similar Mompha, Mompha epilobiella, Mompha langiella, Mompha miscella, Mompha subbistrigella | ||
Mompha jurassicella is a moth in the Momphidae family that can be found in western Europe. The range extends to Switzerland in the east.
Contents
Description
The species is greyish-brown in colour and have a wingspan of 11–13 millimetres (0.43–0.51 in). The wings cary discarded markings, and have indistinct pattern. Adults are on wing from August to October and from March to April after overwintering.
Male genitalia
The male species sacculus is tapped distally, but is slighthly bent. The apex is blunt, reaching sometimes beyond the top of cacullus. Their body also have small anellus lobes, which are clavate. The aedeagus have three carnuti, which are of the same length. The left part is broad, and is also covered and hooked with microspicules. The middle part is bifurcate, and the last one is slender and a bit pointy, with a little distal hook. The male genitalia is similar to the one of Mompha divisella, but is different in a way that it have much more abruptly tapped sacculus and corni of different length.
Ecology
The larvae feed on Epilobium hirsutum. The larvae initially feed inside the stem of their host plant. Up to three stem mines may be found in a single plant.