Ematheudes punctellus

• Subfamily: Phycitinae, Phycitini
• Wingspan: 21-23 mm
• Flight period: Jun - Sep
• Spread: Common
• Host plants: Unknown

Information

The Ematheudes punctellus is a moth of the Pyralidae family, with a wingspan of 19-27 mm.
It is found in western and southern Europe, in fact it was absent from the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Holland, Germany, from the Scandinavian peninsula, Poland, Belarus, the Baltic countries, central and northern European Russia, as well as Slovenia. *

Its range is to Turkey and probably even further east.
In Italy it is absent from Sardinia. *

The front wings of Ematheudes punctellus range from pale yellow to light brown with streaked light brown or reddish pink veins. Usually well visible transverse subapical angled row of brown spots, other brown spots at the base and in the corner of the cell. ***
The hind wings are white, with a silky appearance, with fringed edges. **

Head, thorax and abdomen are in the background color of the li, as well as the very long and downward curved lip palp. **
The antennae in the male is densely ciliated and thicker than in the female, proboscis slightly shorter than the length of the labial palp. ***

Adults fly from June to September. Habitats are varied, meadows, embankments, roadsides and parks, although it seems to prefer wetlands such as wet meadows and seasonal wet meadows. or large ornamental gardens.

It is mainly found in the basal plane even if there are some finds up to 1000 m of altitude.
It is a species attracted to artificial light. Even it's a common species, not much is known about its ethology, it is lacking various data on the larva, on the nymphosis and on the host plants.

As mentioned, the plants that the Ematheudes punctellus larva feed on are still unknown.


* Lepidoptera mundi https://lepidoptera.eu/ - Fauna Europea https://fauna-eu.org/
** Bestimmungshilfe für die in Europa nachgewiesenen Schmetterlingsarten - http://lepiforum.de/ -
*** Oleksiy, Bidzilya & BUDASHKIN, YURIY & Yepishin, Viktor. (2020). Review of the tribe Anerastiini (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae: Phycitinae) from Ukraine. Zootaxa. 4718. 1-24. 10.11646/zootaxa.4718.1.1.
**** Les papillons de France - https://oreina.org/