| Crambus pascuella (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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Scientific name: Crambus pascuella (Linnaeus, 1758) Common name: French name: Crambus des pâturages Order: Lepidoptera Suborder: Heterocera Family: Crambidae Subfamily: Crambinae Wingspan: 21-26 mm. Biotope: Woodlands and damp meadows. Geographic area: Europe. Flight time: May to September. Number of generations : 2 Caterpillar: Brownish grey, darker on the front parts. The head is orange. It looks like several caterpillars of the Pyralidae family and this makes species identification quite impossible on picture. Host plant: Various herbaceous plants and in particular those of the Poa genus. |
Crambus pascuella shows narrow fore wings like the other members of the family. The fore wings are a pale brown colour with a large white spot showing very regular edges and finely bordered with dark brown. This white spot ends with a pointed tip in the submarginal area where it is followed by a smaller white spot extending to the margin. You can distinguish one brown submarginal line bordered with white. It is parallel to the margin on the inner half of the wings marked with black marginal spots. Then it turns towards the costal edge to let a pale brown and white triangle at the apex of the wing where the marginal dots are replaced by a thin continuous line. The hind wings are whitish. There is a possible confusion with Crambus silvella. The tip of the large white spot is generally rounded on this last species and the following small white spot also starts with a rounded tip. These two spots seem to be placed one besides the other while there is an overlapping part on Crambus pascuella on which these two spots are just separated by a thin brown line. Another possible confusion is with Crambus uliginosellus, in boggy habitats where it is found of course. This species shows a small indentation in the middle of the edge of the large white spot on the costal side. This indentation is not found on Crambus pascuella. |
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The disposition of the white spots, the lack of indentation on the upper edge of the large white spot and the habitat where this observation was done (my garden which is not really a peat-bog …) indicate the Crambus pascuella species. |
André Bon March 2017