Eucosma cana

• Subfamily: Olethreutinae, Eucosmini
• Wingspan: 16-23 mm
• Flight period: Jun - Aug
• Spread: Common
• Host plants: Asteraceae

Information

The Eucosma cana is a moth of the Tortricidae family with a wingspan of 16-23 mm. It is quite common and is distributed in most of Europe, in fact it was absent only from Croatia and Iceland. *
Its range extends to China, Japan, Central Asia, Russia, Kazakhstan. ***
In Italy it is absent from the islands. *

The front wings of Eucosma cana have the background color which is similar to suede, with longitudinal gray streaks. The longitudinal light post discal stripe, on the anterior wing, serves to separate darker specimens with indistinct spots from the similar species Eucosma hohenwartiana . **

The costa is the same color as the front wing, up to about half; from here to the apex, streaks start, sometimes with metallic reflections that stop in the median area. Poorly defined median band Two parallel lines are clearly visible that start from the inner corner to end in the cubital area, joined together by one or two dark perpendicular spots, almost black. The edges are fringed.

The hind wings are darker gray towards the margins, also fringed.

Adults are flying in a single generation between June and August, and fly from late afternoon onwards, attracted by artificial light. They can be found on open meadows and uncultivated land.

The larva is 10-11 mm long, with a dark ocher head and prothoracic shield, brown ocher tinged with the rest of the body. It feeds on the flower heads of the host plant.

The host plants to Asteraceae and are Cirsium sp., Carduus sp. and Centaurea sp .. ****


* Lepidoptera mundi https://lepidoptera.eu/ - Fauna Europea https://fauna-eu.org/
** Bestimmungshilfe für die in Europa nachgewiesenen Schmetterlingsarten - http://lepiforum.de/
*** Zhang, A. H.; Li, H. H. Catalogue of Eucosmini from China (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae)
**** Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa - https://leps.it/