Bucculatrix tridenticola Braun 1963

Bucculatrix tridenticola new species 1925. Bucculatrix arnicella Braun (not Braun), Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc. LI: 223. One male, one female listed as paratypes of arnicella in the description of that species, are here excluded from arnicella.
Face white, finely gray speckled ; tuft white in front, chiefly gray above, sometimes with a slight admixture of white hairs; eye-caps white in the anterior half, densely black-speckled in the posterior half, antennal stalk annulate with alternate black and pale gray or white rings, thus more conspicuously annulate than in arnicella. Fore wings densely speckled with black-tipped gray scales; more or less defined white or lightly dusted areas constitute the costal and dorsal streaks ; a gradually widening narrow wedge-shaped black streak from base along fold to the white inner margin of a quadrate or half-crescent-shaped black mark on the middle of dorsum in which there are a few raised scales; the wing between the black streak in fold and the dorsum is usually somewhat paler than the general ground color, and when the wings are folded with dorsal margins meeting, this area forms, with the white inner margin of the dorsal black spot, an hour-glass-shaped mark, with the constriction near the white margin ; from the base of wing, contiguous to the black streak in fold is a very short dash of elongate white scales which is usually, except in the darkest specimens, easily discernible and constitutes a recognition character for the species ; from before middle of costa a pale or whitish streak (rarely conspicuous) with a line of black scales along its inner margin ; at two-thirds of costa a more conspicuous and larger white or little dusted streak, less oblique than the corresponding streak in arnicella, which may meet, at an obtuse angle, the outer white streak margining the black dorsal spot or be separated from it by a line of black scales ; apical area, especially in the costal half, mostly white, with a small black apical dot, below which the white scales are narrowly black-tipped; a conspicuous line of black-tipped scales extends from the white costal cilia around apex in the pale gray cilia. Hind wings and cilia dark gray. Legs gray, tarsal segments black-tipped. Abdomen dark gray above, silvery gray beneath.
Alar expanse 7.5 mm.
Male genitalia (figs. 154, 154a, 155). Harpe typical of the group, socii rounded, incurved, with heavy setae similar to those on the harpe ; tegumen below socii swollen, forming two setose lobes ( ? gnathos) ; subscaphium minutely spinulose ; anellus conical ; aedeagus nearly as long as the bod)-, sinuate, slender in its outer two-thirds ; vinculum narrow. Scale sac very small.
Female genitalia (figs. 156, 156a). Segment 9 modified, rasping rods strong, vaginal setae comparatively large, the larger ones may be three-lobed at tip; posterior to ostium on membrane of 8, an area of minute forked spinules ; larger areas of similar spinules lateral to ostium ; on each side at the posterior lateral margin of the intersegmental membrane, a fan-shaped group of long specialized scales curving toward the mid-ventral line; on the intersegmental membrane
and lying beneath the overlying segment 7, a compact patch of dark-pi gmented specialized scales in a circular slightly depressed pocket; ostium in a rounded depression at the anterior margin of segment 8 ; ductus bursae sclerotized nearly to the anterior margin of segment 5 ; a short membranous section abruptly curves to the left and enters the bursa copulatrix dorsally; spines of signum ribs graduating from long slender acute to short.
Type— 8, Spring Creek. Baker County. Oregon. July 18. 1955 (J. F. G. Clarke) ; genitalia slide 10505, J. F. G. C. [U.S.N.M., Type No. 65028].
Allotype— 2 , same data as the type [U.S.N.M.].
Paraty pes. —25, 8 , 2 , same data as the type [U.S.N.M.] ; 1 8 ,2 2, French Glen, Harney County, Oregon, July 14, 1953, " reared from Artemisia tridentata," "on twigs of sagebrush," (F. P. Larson) [U.S.N.M.]; 1 8, Pullman, Washington, September 20, 1930 (J. F. G. Clarke) [A.F.B.Coll.] ; 1 2, Toppanish, Washington, May 31, 1946 ( B. J. Landis) [U.S.N.M.]; 1 8, 2 2, Eritiat, Washington, June 10, 1914 (E. J. Newcomer) [U.S.N.M.]; 6, 8, 2, Ephraim, Utah, June 18, 1943, "sagebrush" (G. F. Knowlton) [U.S.N.M.]; 1 8,1 2, Logan, Cache County, Utah, rearing record B.1152, from cocoons on leaves of Artemisia tridentata, imagoes June 29 and July 1, 1924 (A. F. Braun) [A.F.B.Coll.]; 15, 8, 2, Reno, Nevada, bearing March and October dates (H. G. Dyar) [U.S.N.M.]; 1 2, Boulder, Colorado, March 23, 1907 (T. D. A. Cockerell) [U.S.N.M.]; 1 2, Florissant, Colorado, June 28 (Cockerell) [U.S.N.M.]; 1 8, Aweme (southwest of Brandon), Manitoba, 23 June, 1912 (N. Criddle) [C.N.Coll.].
Food plant, Artemisia tridentata Nutt. No details of the earlystages are known ; a small linear mine observed on the leaves at the time the cocoons of the Logan, Utah specimens were collected may belong to this species. The small whitish cocoon (fig. 49), marked with twelve or thirteen fine ridges, of which ten or eleven are usually distinct, is spun on the underside of leaves or on twigs of the food plant.
B. tridenticola is a common species of the sagebrush association, occurring in more xeric habitats than B. salutatoria, also a sagebrush feeder.
The moths closely resemble B. arniccUa, and may easily be confused with that species without data on habitat and food plants. Perfect specimens of tridenticola may be separated from arniccUa by the minute white dash at base of fore wing, the black streak in fold, and by the angle of meeting of the second costal pale streak and the corresponding dorsal streak — obtuse in tridenticola, acute in arniccUa. On genitalic characters of both sexes the two species will not be confused. The very long curved aedeagus, one-third longer than that of arniccUa, is a character visible in the dry insect.

Bucculatrix tridenticola is a moth in the family Bucculatricidae. It is found in North America, where it has been recorded from Manitoba, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Utah, California and Nevada. The species was first described in 1963 by Annette Frances Braun.

Adults have been recorded on wing from July to August.

The larvae feed on Artemisia tridentata.