Gypsonoma minutana

• Subfamily: Olethreutinae, Eucosmini
• Wingspan: 12-15 mm
• Flight period: May - Oct
• Spread: Common
• Host plants: Populus sp.

Information

The Gypsonoma minutana is a moth of the Tortricidae family with a wingspan of 12-15 mm. In Europe we find it almost everywhere it is absent from Ireland, Norway, Croatia, and Ukraine. *
Its range extends to North Africa, Turkey, the Urals, Kazakhstan, Central Asia in Siberia and Eastern Russia, Asia Minor, Iran, Afghanistan, Mongolia, China and Japan. *, ***
In Italy it is also present in Sicily. *

The front wings of the Gypsonoma minutana have a white / ocher ground color finely streaked with brown / reddish mixed with black. More or less evident, pale brown and reddish brown markings are visible, mixed and streaked with very dark brown and black.
The median band is moderately defined, and indistinctly bordered with a pale purplish color. The ocellus is well developed, composed of six or seven black lines, strictly parallel and sprinkled with white.

The hind wings are shaded gray, darker in the apical areas.All the wings are fringed, the forelegs brown / reddish from the apex to about half of the wing and white / ocher from half onwards. **
The hind wings brown. **

There is no evident dimorphism. In Italy, there are 2-3 generations per year, with adults appearing from late May to mid-June, end of July to mid-August and from mid-September to the end of October.
The larvae overwinter from the end of October to the end of May.

The caterpillar is pale green with a light yellowish brown head; the pupa is reddish brown. **
The feeding of the larva takes place in a silk tube between two leaves tied together, advancing in the tunnel the larva feeds on the leaf internal and expels excrements which have the purpose of covering and strengthening the tunnel ****, *****, ******.

Gypsonoma minutana is registered as a serious pest in Russian parks.

The host plants are Populus nigra, Populus alba, Populus tremula. *******


* 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
**** (Bradley et al., 1979)
***** (Giunchi e Giovanni, 1987 )
****** (Kuznetsov, 1987).
******* Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa - https://leps.it/