Bucculatrix sexnotata Braun 1927

Bucculatrix sexnotata Braun (Figs. 43, 43a, 134. 135, 135a.)
1927. Bucculatrix sexnotata Braun, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc. LIII : 195. Type $, Natural Bridge, Powell County, Kentucky [A.F.B.Coll.].
Face shining yellowish white, tuft orange-red in front, shading to dark brown behind; eye-caps small, silver)' white, antennal notch of male very shallow, antennal stalk fuscous in basal half, faintly paler annulate, in outer half paler
shading to white or whitish at tip, especially in female. Thorax and fore wings dark, almost black, faintly shining; the wings with six silvery white spots; a short oblique spot from base of costa to fold ; oblique triangular costal spots before middle and at three-fourths ; triangular dorsal spots at one-third and before tornus, each a little anterior to the corresponding costal spot ; the sixth spot at apex and followed by a patch of blackish scales projecting into the cilia, from this a faint line of dark scales through the cilia along termen. Hind wings and cilia brown, slightly paler in female ; frenulum of female with two bristles not closely associated. Legs dark brown, posterior tibiae with long dull ocherous hairs. Abdomen dark brown above, much paler beneath in female, tip pale ocherous.
Alar expanse 7 to 7.5 mm.
Male genitalia (fig. 134). Harpe with an outer curved setose lobe, apex with short heavy setae ; socii very large, finely setose ; anellus slender, conical, sclerotized; aedeagus curving from broad base to slender apex; vinculum moderately broad, rounded anteriorly. Scale sac present.
Female genitalia (figs. 135, 135a). Ostium small, circular, opening into a shallow sinus, margined by a strongly sclerotized horseshoe-shaped structure, its arms gradually broadening and attaining the posterior margin of the sclerotized basal half of segment 8; a patch of dark specialized scales each side of ostium on intersegmental membrane projects slightly beyond the posterior margin of 7; on dorsal posterior margin of 7 a dense line of scales, shorter than the lateral scales (not shown on figure) ; signum the usual ring of spined ribs, spines long, with an occasional larger spine (fig. 135a).
Specimens examined. — 23 $,25 2.
Kentucky: Natural Bridge, Powell County, $ type, 2 paratype, rearing record B.1223, from larvae on Aster divaricatus L., September 12, 1924, imagoes April 18 and April 27, 1925 [A.F.B.Coll.].
North Carolina : Thomas Ridge, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 2 2, rearing record B.2198, larvae collected on Aster divaricatus L., August 2, 1953, imagoes April 26, 1954 [A.F.B.Coll.].
Ohio: Ash Cave, Hocking County, 3 $, 6 2, rearing record B.2091, larvae on Aster prenantlioidcs Muhl., September 29, 1943, imagoes April 12 to April 19, 1944 [A.F.B.Coll.].
Pennsylvania: New Brighton, 1 2, July 10, '07 (Merrick Museum) Ontario: 1 $, 3-V1I, 1905 (C. H. Young) [C.N.Coll.].
New Brunswick: Waweig, 1 2, 5-VII, 1933 (T. N. Freeman) [C.N.Coll.].
Nova Scotia: Petite Riviere, 14 $, July 16, 19, 1935. 7 2, July 19, 1935; White Pt. Bch., Queen Co., 3 $, July 13, 16, 20, 1934; Smith's Cove, 3 2, July 19-20, August 6, 1945 (J. McDunnough) [C.N.Coll.]; Halifax Co., 4 2, 1 S, reared on Aster novi-belgii L., imagoes April 13 to 19, 1952 (J. McDunnough) [Nova Scotia Museum of Science]. The larvae make very long thread-like mines in leaves of several species of Aster, the early portion of the mine sometimes difficult to discern ; three instars are passed in the mine ; during the fourth and fifth instars (as indicated by the spinning of two moulting cocoons) the larvae feed exposed on the underside of the leaf, the upper epidermis remaining intact in the irregular eaten patches (fig. 43). Along the high ridges of the Great Smoky Mountains (on the Appalachian Trail at elevations between 5000 and 6000 feet), where B. sexnotata mines only the leaves of Aster divaricatus, the mines are sometimes so plentiful as to shrivel the leaves and disfigure the plants. However the high percentage of parasitism here (in 1953) resulted in emergence of scarcely 10% of the individuals. Cocoon (fig. 43a) slender, with six well-defined ridges ; anterior section little differentiated, except that the ridges may be less distinct, or sometimes obsolete ; pale grayish brown, occasionally whitish.
Bucculatrix sexnotata resembles in general character of wing markings the Corylus-feeder, B. callistricha new species, with which it has no relationship, as shown by genitalic structure. The characteristic genitalia of both sexes at once separate B. sexnotata from all other described American species.
Subsection B

Bucculatrix sexnotata is a moth in the family Bucculatricidae. It is found in North America, where it has been recorded from California, Kentucky, Maine, New Brunswick, North Carolina, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania and Quebec. It was described in 1927 by Annette Frances Braun.