Bucculatrix copeuta Meyrick 1919

Bucculatrix copeuta Meyrick (Figs. 8, 217. 218.)
1919. Bucculatrix copeuta Meyrick. Exot. Microlep. II: 288. Types, $, 5, Toronto, Ontario [B.M.].
Head shining white, tuft rarely with a few ocherous-tipped scales ; eye-caps large, lustrous white, antennal stalk whitish, faintly marked above with pale gray
dots. Thorax white. Fore wings lustrous white, with pale ocherous, lightly dusted costal and dorsal streaks (fig. 8); the first very oblique costal streak from before middle of costa extends to the middle of the wing; the second from middle of costa extends obliquely to beyond the middle of the wing; from middle of dorsum a less distinct oblique streak (sometimes absent) curves posteriorly and as an attenuated line follows the fold, sometimes meeting the apex of the second costal streak ; a broader band crosses the wing irregularly from apical fourth to termen, and is continued along costa and termen by fainter dusting, thus enclosing a pure white area, within which lies the black apical dot; opposite the apical dot, a short line of black scales at base of cilia, not always separated from the apical dot, and a second short line in the cilia, thus forming a series of three black marks at apex. Hind wings pale silvery gray, cilia white. Legs and underside of body silvery white.
Alar expanse 6.5 to 7 mm.
Male genitalia (figs. 217, 217a). Harpe with an inner lobe, acute near its apex and margined with curved setae ; socii prolonged into pointed tips, bearing minute setae on their inner margins near tip, elsewhere long setose ; anellus broad, lateral margins narrowly sclerotized ; aedeagus stout, aperture appearing hooded, apex curving dorsad to the pointed tip ; cornuti, two weakly sclerotized teeth ; vinculum narrow, mid-ventrally shortly produced. Scale sac large, globose, outer scales broad, inner linear.
Female genitalia (figs. 218, 218a). On the intersegmental membrane, ventral to ostium, a broad arch of specialized scales, the inner rows of scales near its free ends minute, outer long, grading to a single row of short scales midventrally ; ostium abruptly wide ; dorsad of ostium a sclerotized plate prolonged posteriorly ; ductus bursae sclerotized nearly to segment 6 ; signum faint, the ring open dorsally, each rib usually with one large strongly sclerotized section, followed by sections terminating in one to several short sharp spines (fig. 218a).
Specimens examined. — 3 $,3 2.
Ontario: Sparrow Lake, 2 $, 2 5, July 12 to July 17, 1926 (A. F. Braun) [A.F.B.Coll.] ; Waubamic, Parry Sound, 1 9, June 25 ( H. S. Parish) [Cornell U.].
Maine: Augusta, 1 $ , " bred ex plum, emgd May 29, 1945 " (A. E. Brower) [A. E. Brower Coll.].
Brower records it from " plum ", but with no data on the early stages or cocoon. Pin-cherry, {Prunus pensylvanica L.f. ), is abundant in the area at Sparrow Lake, Ontario, where the four specimens recorded above were collected and may possibly be its food plant there.
In the original description, Meyrick makes no mention of a dorsal streak. In a letter dated November 12, 1927, in reply to mine noting the presence of a dorsal streak in specimens from Sparrow Lake, Ontario, Meyrick wrote " The two original examples of Bucculatrix copeuta, though in very good condition, do not show any dorsal streak or trace of it ; but since then I have received seven more examples from Canada, which I consider certainly the same species, and some of these show the dorsal streak, one having it quite well-marked as you describe it ; no doubt your specimens are the same species, which has a distinct aspect, owing to the pure white ground colour."
The white ground color and ocherous streaks may suggest relationship with the gall-forming species, but the genitalia indicate relationship with the oak and birch feeders. The three black marks placed in sequence at the apex of the wing, although not always sharply separated, are the best identifying characters of copeuta.

Bucculatrix copeuta is a moth in the family Bucculatricidae. It is found in North America, where it has been recorded from Ontario and Maine. The species was first described in 1919 by Edward Meyrick.

The larvae possibly feed on Prunus pensylvanica.