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Blastodacna atra, the apple pith moth is a moth of the family Elachistidae. It is known from most of Europe and it has been introduced to North America.

Blastodacna atra
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Elachistidae
Genus:	Blastodacna
Species:	B. atra
Binomial name
Blastodacna atra (Haworth, 1828)[1]
Synonyms
Recurvaria atra Haworth, 1828 Elachista putripennella Zeller 1839

Description

The wingspan is 11–13 mm. The head is white. Forewings are narrow, dark fuscous ; a broad white dorsal streak, sprinkled with dark fuscous from base to tornus, with broad triangular indentation at 2/5, including a black scale-tuft ; from apex of this streak a slender whitish fascia to costa before apex, emitting a branch posteriorly in middle and sometimes one anteriorly below it ; a black scale-tuft in disc before this.Hindwings are grey. [2]

Adults are on wing from May to September in western Europe.[3]

The larvae mine inside young shoots of apples (Malus species) and can be found by looking for small heaps of frass. Occasionally there may be a small swelling and the young shoot may die off.[4]

Distribution

The apple pith moth is found in most of Europe. It is an introduced species in North America, where it has been recorded from Massachusetts and Ontario.

References

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