| Antispila voraginella | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Clade: | Euarthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Heliozelidae |
| Genus: | Antispila |
| Species: | A. voraginella |
| Binomial name | |
| Antispila voraginella Braun, 1927 | |
Antispila voraginella is a species of moth of the family Heliozelidae. It is found in the Rocky Mountains, including Utah, Arizona and western Texas.
Moths comprise a group of insects related to butterflies, belonging to the order Lepidoptera. Most lepidopterans are moths, and there are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of which have yet to be described. Most species of moth are nocturnal, but there are also crepuscular and diurnal species.
A family of primitive monotrysian moths in the order Lepidoptera, Heliozelidae are small, metallic day-flying moths with shiny smooth heads. In Europe the small adult moths are seldom noticed as they fly quite early in the spring. The larvae are leaf miners and the vacated leaf mines are distinctive because the larva leaves a large hole at the end.
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 4,800 kilometers (3,000 mi) from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico in the Southwestern United States. Located within the North American Cordillera, the Rockies are somewhat distinct from the Pacific Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, and the Sierra Nevada, which all lie farther to the west.
There is probably only one generation per year, with adults emerging from April to June.
The larvae feed on Vitis arizonica . They mine the leaves of their host plant and are usually gregarious with mines forming large pale blotches. [1] Larvae have been found in June and July in the northern part of the range, but through September in monsoonal areas to the south.
Vitis arizonica is a North American species of wild grape. It is a deciduous vine.
A leaf miner is the larva of an insect that lives in and eats the leaf tissue of plants. The vast majority of leaf-mining insects are moths (Lepidoptera), sawflies and flies (Diptera), though some beetles also exhibit this behavior.
