Bucculatrix taeniola Braun 1963

Bucculatrix taeniola new species (Figs. 11, 121, 121a, 122, 122a, 122b.)
Face white, dotted with fuscous; tuft fuscous, darker in the center, with a faint rufous tinge ; eye-caps white, sometimes fuscous-dotted ; stalk pale gray with fuscous annulations. Thorax irrorated fuscous. Fore wings (fig. 11) irrorated fuscous, with white transverse bands and a white costal triangle at apex; at one-third, a transverse, nearly perpendicular, slightly convex white band, usually broadest near costa, and margined outwardly near dorsum by black scales; beyond middle, a somewhat more irregular transverse white band, marked with a few lines of fuscous scales; just before apex, a white triangle, which, on its inner side, majbe encroached upon by the fuscous scales of the ground color ; median area of wing between the two transverse bands usually darker than the rest of the wing; scales at extreme apex of wing and along termen broadly black-tipped ; cilia, except costal cilia, gray. Hind wings and cilia gray, somewhat irrorated. Legs gray shaded with dark fuscous; tarsal segments black-tipped. Abdomen silvery fuscous.
Alar expanse 7 mm.
Male genitalia (figs. 122, 122a, 122b). Harpes slender, nearly parallel-sided with short heavy setae at apex, long setae below apex ; socii columnar, short setae at apex, long decumbent setae below apex ; anellus conical, aperture oblique ; aedeagus slender, elongate, curving to tip ; vinculum emarginate anteriorly. Scales of scale sac (fig. 122b) broad club-shaped.
Female genitalia (figs. 121, 121a). Segment 7 partially overlying segment 8; in lateral depressed pockets of the intersegmental membrane adjacent to the anterior margin of sternite of 8, dense patches of dark-pigmented specialized scales ; lateral to ostium, a cluster of strong setae ; near posterior margin of 8, a lateral group of specialized scales (removed on the left side) ; ostium circular, its ventral margin strongly sclerotized and produced laterally into two strong flanges truncate at the ends ; signum, separated groups of closely placed spined ribs (fig. 121a).
Type. — S , Salinas, California, " reared on white sage, Feb. 26, 1938." Genitalia slide by Busck " AB, Apr. 25, 1938" [U.S.N.M., Type No. 65024].
Allotype— 5, Mt. Wilson, California, March 5, 1925 (E. L. Braun) [A.F.B. Coll.].
Paratype. — 1 9, S. Luis Obispo, California, March (A. H. Vachell ) " White sage " is the common name of Salvia apiana Jepson (Audibcrtia polystachya Benth. ) in California; Eurotia lanata (Pursh) Moq. ( Chenopodiaceae ) is also sometimes called white sage. Thus the correct name of the food plant of B. taeniola is in doubt. Genitalia would seem to ally it to the Composite feeders.
The characteristic pattern of the markings of the fore wings separates this species from all others of our fauna.

Bucculatrix taeniola is a moth in the family Bucculatricidae. It is found in North America, where it has been recorded from California. The species was described by Annette Frances Braun in 1963.

The larvae feed on white sage, which could refer to Salvia apiana or Eurotia lanata.