Grass leaf miners

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Grass leaf miners
Elachista pullicomella

Elachista pullicomella

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Subclass : Flying insects (Pterygota)
Superordinate : New winged wing (Neoptera)
Order : Butterflies (Lepidoptera)
Superfamily : Gelechioidea
Family : Grass leaf miners
Scientific name
Elachistidae
Bruand , 1851

The grass miners (Elachistidae) are a family of butterflies (Lepidoptera). They occur worldwide with about 3,300 kinds in eight subfamilies. In Central Europe the family is represented with 235 species, in all of Europe it occurs with 246 species and subspecies.

features

The moths reach a wingspan of 7 to 12 millimeters and they have a slender body and narrow wings. The forewings have 10 to 12 veins with one or two anal veins (1b or 1b and 1c), they lack the 5th and 8th veins, sometimes also the 4th. Their hind wings have five to nine veins with no to three anal veins and are usually much narrower than the forewings and tapering to a point. They lack vein 5 and sometimes also 4. The color of the wings is mostly metallic or speckled, or white, brown or gray in the basic color. Her head is densely scaled. Their tripartite labial palps are usually very long, thin and curved upwards, their maxillary palps have receded and consist of only one or two segments. In the species that have downwardly curved labial palps, these are short. Their proboscis is well developed and scaled at the base. The filamentous antennae in both sexes are medium to long, but reach a maximum of 80% of the fore wing length. Some species have point eyes ( Ocelli ).

Way of life

The animals live close to the ground on plants and bushes. You can run fast. The caterpillars are miners and create their feeding tunnels in grass and the leaves of herbaceous plants . Only a few species live in stems. They prefer rushes (Juncaceae), sweet grasses ( Poaceae), and sour grasses (Cyperaceae). Pupation takes place either on the ground and probably also on the plant. The dolls are either exposed, then they are attached with a silk thread, or they are provided with a web.

Systematics

The grass miners are divided into the following subfamilies:

supporting documents

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elachistidae. Lepiforum eV, accessed on January 9, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Elachistidae in Fauna Europaea. Retrieved November 11, 2006

literature

  • Thomas Kaltenbach, Peter Victor Küppers: Small butterflies . 1st edition. J. Neudamm-Neudamm, Melsungen 1987, ISBN 3-7888-0510-2 .

Web links

Commons : Grass Miners  - Collection of images, videos and audio files