Meadow shade

Description

Cnephasia pasiuana, the meadow shade, is a moth of the family Tortricidae. It was described by Jacob Hübner in 1799. It is found in almost all of Europe. The habitat consists of rough pastures, fens and marshy areas. The wingspan is 15–19 mm. The forewing pattern varies from pale to dark grey. Meyrick describes it -Antennal cilia of male very short. Thorax crested. Forewings elongate, costa moderately arched, 7 to apex; fuscous, finely irrorated with whitish-ochreous; an angulated fascia at 1/3, central fascia, and apical suffused patch darker, sometimes obsolete. Hindwings pale fuscous, darker terminally, 6 and 7 stalked.The larva yellowish- grey; spots black. There is one generation per year, with adults on wing from June to July. The larvae feed on the flowers of various herbaceous plants, primarily Asteraceae species. They have been recorded feeding on Agropyron, Pisum, Brassica, Medicago, Humulus, as well as Ranunculus species. They spin together several petals of their host plant. Cnephasia is a genus of tortrix moths (family Tortricidae). It belongs to the subfamily Tortricinae and therein to the tribe Cnephasiini, of which it is the type genus. The type species around which Cnephasia was established by J. Curtis in 1826 (in the explanations to plate 100 of his British Entomology) was claimed to be "Tortrix logiana". However, this was a misidentification; the name of T. logiana (described by C.A. Clerck in 1759 and nowadays called Acleris logiana) was until the early 20th century frequently applied to related species in error. Curtis simply repeated the mistake of A.H. Haworth, who had in his 1811 volume of Lepidoptera Britannica discussed a Cnephasia under Clerck's name, but the original misidentification may well go back to Linnaeus' treatment of "T. logiana" in Systema naturae. Eventually, this was resolved, and the type species of Cnephasia was determined to be the tortrix moth described as Olethreutes pasiuana by J. Hübner in 1822.