Bucculatrix coronatella Clemens 1860

Bucculatrix coronatella Clemens (Figs. 20, 196, 197.)
1860. Bucculatrix coronatella Clemens, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. : 13. Type locality, Pennsylvania ( ? Eastern). Type not in existence.
1872. Bucculatrix coronatella Stainton, Tin. No. Amer., pp. 108, 109.
1873. Bucculatrix coronatella Chambers, Canad. Ent. V: 151.
1903. Bucculatrix coronatella Busck, Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash. V : 198. 1923. Bucculatrix coronatella Forbes, Mem. 68, Cornell Univ. Agric. Exp. Sta., p. 158.
Head yellowish white, tuft orange-ocherous centrally, eye-caps yellowish white tinged with ocherous posteriorly, antennal stalk dotted with brown above. Thorax orange-ocherous, tegulae and extreme base of fore wing pale. Ground color of fore wings a uniform orange-ocherous or sometimes brownish ; at basal fifth, above the fold, an oblique whitish spot, narrowly separated from the costal margin by ground color ; on the dorsum, opposite its apex, a second whitish spot, followed by a patch of black raised scales, which may be conspicuous, extending from dorsum to fold, reduced to a few scales, or sometimes absent; ground color behind the raised scales not darkened ; near middle of costa an oblique whitish streak; at two-thirds, an irregular whitish band, angulated at its middle, crosses the wing to tornus; an apical whitish patch before the small black apical spot may extend into cilia of costa and termen, thus encircling it; a line of black-tipped scales in the cilia opposite apex continues to tornus, sometimes merely as a faint pale line; a few of the marginal scales along termen, especially near tornus, often black-tipped ; cilia whitish or pale ocherous, tinged with fuscous toward dorsum. Hind wings and cilia gray or pale reddish fuscous. Legs pale stramineous, hind tarsal segments faintly dark-tipped. Abdomen stramineous below, fuscous and reddish brown above.
Alar expanse 7.5 to 8 mm.
Male genitalia (fig. 197). Harpes typical of the section, setose outwardly, terminating at apex in a small pointed process, basal process present ; socii short, broad, setose ; aedeagus stout, tapering to the acutely pointed tip ; vinculum a very narrow sclerotized band. Scales of scale sac long and slender.
Female genitalia (figs. 196, 196a). Dorsal posterior margin of segment 7 fringed with specialized scales, the ventral posterior margin fringed laterally only with long specialized scales ; on intersegmental membrane and ventral to ostium, a dense tuft of specialized scales on each side of mid-ventral line, connected by less closely placed scales ; on sternite of 8, on each side of ostium, a large elongate patch of dark specialized scales ; on anterior margin of tergite of 8, a row of very small scales ; ostium ventrally with narrow lobed, dorsally broadly lobed sclerotization ; signum ribs irregularly spined, with some long acicular spines.
Specimens examined. — 17 $, 19 2.
District of Columbia: Washington, 1 $, ''on birch," iss. 19 July, 1894; 1 $, July 1, 1902; IS," coll. on birch " May 11, 1901 (A. Busck) [U.S.N.M.] ; 1 $, May 20, 1885 (Koebele Collection) [A.F.B.Coll.]. Without locality, but probably from the vicinity of Washington, D. C. : 5 S , 12 2 , " on black birch," some with cocoons, May 6 to May 11, 1885, March 24, 1884, January 11, 1884 (C. V. Riley Coll.) [U.S.N.M.].
Virginia: Falls Church, 1 S, 2 2, May 11, June, 1903 (August Busck) New Jersey: New Lisbon, 3 S, 1 2, July 7, 1942 ( E. P. Darlington) Pennsylvania: Floradale, Adams County, 2 $, 2 2, with cocoons, July and August, 1917 [J. R. Eyer Coll.].
Ontario: Ottawa, 1 2, June 27, 1934 ( C. H. Young) [C.N.Coll.] ; Bobcaygeon, 1 2, June 23 (J. McDunnough ) [C.N.Coll.].
Ohio: Blue Creek, Adams County, 2 S , rearing record B.2282. on Betula nigra L. (river birch), imagoes July 18, July 22, 1958 (A. F. Braun) [A.F.B. Coll.].
Kentucky : Along Triplett Creek, Morehead, Rowan County, rearing record B.2283 on Betula nigra L., larvae only, July 9, no imagoes reared.
The following notes on the life history of this species are based on the material reared on Betula nigra L. in Adams County, Ohio.
The egg is deposited on the underside of the leaf against a' vein — usually a lateral vein — and is marked with the typical hexagonal sculpturing. The very fine thread-like, irregularly winding mine, usually not over a centimeter in length, but sometimes 1.5 cm. long, is filled with blackish frass. Moulting cocoons, the first and second similar except for size, are spun on the upper side of the leaf of closely woven fine silk, so thin as to be almost transparent, with the larva curled within or the cast skin plainly visible as a whitish spot. External feeding takes place commonly on the underside of the leaf. Mature larva pale green with reddish tinge on thoracic segments and head. Cocoon pale to brownish ocherous, with seven or eight ridges, of which five or six are well-defined ; in several of the Pennsylvania examples, the ridges are somewhat diagonally placed, with resulting anastomosis and fusion.
Larvae were collected on June 30 in first and second moulting cocoons ; the last instar larva feeds for only a few days before spinning; first cocoon spun July 4.
The food plant of the Washington specimens, labeled " black birch," is probably Bctula nigra L. Bctula nigra has sometimes been called " black birch " (see Little, Check List of Native and Naturalized Trees of the United States, 1953 ).
Clemens' type is not in existence and our conception of the species is based on the series reared on "black birch." Busck (1903, I.e. ) states " In the U. S. National Museum is a large series bred from black birch and determined as this species. As it agrees with Clemens' description and very likely was compared with Clemens' type, this series may properly be regarded as representing B. coronatella."
In the fore wing (fig. 20) cubitus is obsolete beyond the cell, its course beyond this point merely indicated by a slight difference in the wing surface. Clemens (I.e., p. 108) noted this character under the generic description preceding the species description.
The uniform ground color of the fore wings without darkening behind the raised scales (as in the related oak-feeding species), the black raised scales, black apical spot and black apical ciliary line forming the only dark marks, distinguish this species. The unusual position of the moulting cocoons — on the upper side of the leaf — is characteristic.

Bucculatrix coronatella is a moth in the family Bucculatricidae. The species was described in 1860 by James Brackenridge Clemens. It is found in North America, where it has been recorded from Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington D.C. and West Virginia.