Eucosma flavispecula

• Subfamily: Olethreutinae, Eucosmini
• Wingspan: 15-19 mm
• Flight period: Jul - Aug
• Spread: Uncommon
• Host plants: Centaurea jacea

Information

The Eucosma flavispecula is a moth of the Tortricidae family with a wingspan of 14-18 mm. In Europe we find it in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Finland, southern and central European Russia and Ukraine. *
Its range extends to China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan ***.
In Italy it is absent from the islands. *

The front wings of Eucosma flavispecula have a brown background color, suffused with brown, the costa is marked from the middle to the apex of brown streaks, with yellow or brown markings. The basal band is brown in color, the sub-basal band is brown in color, the median band is poorly defined. Relatively large and conspicuous a triangular spot, often only slightly hinted at, in a light shade of the background color in the mid-dorsal area.

A square band is clearly visible in the submarginal region near the inner corner, with lateral lines in a silver and metallic color, containing two or three fragmented black dashes; whitish fringes sprinkled with gray brown in the apical area.
The rear wing is gray with fringes of the same color. **

The larvae feed on Centaurea jacea.


* Lepidoptera mundi https://lepidoptera.eu/ - Fauna Europea https://fauna-eu.org/
** Bestimmungshilfe für die in Europa nachgewiesenen Schmetterlingsarten - http://lepiforum.de/
*** A.H. Zhang/H.H.Li 2005 Catalogue of Eucosmini from China - https://gdoremi.altervista.org/documents/Eucosmini_cina.pdf