Triaxomera parasitella ( Hübner, 1796 )

Landry, Jean-François, Nazari, Vazrick, Dewaard, Jeremy R., Mutanen, Marko, Lopez-Vaamonde, Carlos, Huemer, Peter & Hebert, Paul D. N., 2013, Shared but overlooked: 30 species of Holarctic Microlepidoptera revealed by DNA barcodes and morphology, Zootaxa 3749 (1), pp. 1-93 : 7-11

2. Triaxomera parasitella ( Hübner, 1796) ( Tineidae : Nemapogoninae )

Tinea parasitella Hübner, 1796: 16 . Type locality: [ Germany].

BOLD:AAD9379

Palearctic distribution. Widespread in Europe ( Karsholt & Razowski 1996) .

New North American records. Canada: British Columbia, Port Coquitlam ( Vancouver area ), in an urban backyard , 29 May 2005, 1 ♀; 11 Jun 2006, 1 ♂; 3 Jun 2007, 1 ♀; 1–4 Jun 2009, 2 ♀ ( CNC) .

Diagnosis. A medium-sized tineid (wingspan 15–19 mm) with ciliate antenna, and the forewing with dark brown irrorations over a dirty white ground colour. The male genitalia have the valvae fused to the vinculum, with a straight outer margin, an inner margin with a dentiform notch in the distal third, the saccus shorter than the vinculum, and the gnathos arms recurved and finger-like. In the female genitalia the ductus bursae is finely spinulose and slightly longer than the anterior apophyses, the signum is a finely serrate plate attenuate caudally and with a indistinct edge on one side, the ostium is set at the apex of a short, cylindrical projection, and S8 has a pair of kidney-like lateral lobes on each side of the ostium.

Larval host. Bracket fungi ( Pelham-Clinton 1985).

Note. This is likely an introduced species. It is quite distinct in size and colouration and should be easily recognized.