Crombrugghia laetus

• Subfamily: Pterophorinae
• Wingspan: 14-23 mm
• Flight period: May - Sep
• Spread: Uncommon
• Host plants: Asteraceae

Information

The Crombrugghia laetus also called Scarce Light Plume is a moth of the Pterophoridae family, with a wingspan of 14-23 mm.
In Europe we find it in the Iberian Peninsula, in France, in UK, in the Balkan Peninsula including Bulgaria and Romania and in Eastern European Russia. *
Its range extends to North Africa, Asia Minor and Iraq. ***
In Italy it is also present in the islands. *

The wings of the Crombrugghia laetus are light brown/ocher, more or less suffused ocher with two dark whitish bars in the terminal area. At about two thirds, the wing divides into two fringed lamellae, the fringes have some black black parts.

The hind wings are divided into three lamellae, the two longest dark brown the shortest light brown / ocher, all strongly fringed. The fringes of the shorter lamella have some white fringes and some black ones, often determining for identification.

The head and the thorax are in the background color of the anterior wings, while the abdomen of white ocher color has white longitudinal striae, which decrease of intensity as you move into the anal region. Some short dark streaks are also visible.

There is little information on Crombrugghia laetus adults are visible in the period between May and September even if in France there were some findings also in October/November.****

The larvae are oligophages and feed on Asteraceae, in particular on Andryala integrifolia, pinnatifida; Hieracium tomentosum. *****


* Lepidoptera mundi https://lepidoptera.eu/ - Fauna Europea https://fauna-eu.org/
** Bestimmungshilfe für die in Europa nachgewiesenen Schmetterlingsarten - http://lepiforum.de/
*** Mindat.org - https://www.mindat.org/taxon-1860072.html
**** Oreina, Les Papillons de France - https://oreina.org/artemisiae/observatoire/index.php?module=fiche&action=fiche&d=micro&id=701504
***** Plant Parasites of Europe, leafminers, galls and fungi - https://bladmineerders.nl/