Oak Ribbed Skeletonizer

Bucculatrix albertiella Busck (Figs. 180, 180a, 180b, 181.)
1909. Bucculatrix albertiella Busck, Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash. XI: 184. Type $,
Alameda County, California [U.S.N.M., Type No. 12693].
1910. Bucculatrix tctrclla Braun. Ent. News XXI: 175. Type S, Mills Col-
lege, Alameda County, California [A.F.B.Coll.]. (New synonymy.)
Face white, minutely dark-ocherous speckled; hairs of tuft mixed whitish and reddish ocherous, the reddish ocherous predominating; antennal eye-caps whitish, dotted with dark ocherous, stalk annulate with golden or dark brown. Thorax creamy white, brown dotted. Fore wings creamy white, dusted with minutely brown-tipped scales ; the markings are produced by bands and patches of pale lustrous scales; these are four in number, the first near base and sometimes produced along fold ; the second and third are oblique bands crossing the wing, the second to middle of dorsum, sometimes broken or ill-defined at its middle, and on its inner margin below fold a conspicuous tuft of black-tipped raised scales; the third, more evenly outlined, crosses the wing to tornus where it is broadest ; the fourth is a more or less triangular patch at apical fourth of costa, nearly crossing the wing; between these marks are oblique more or less dusted pale streaks and bands, one indistinct near base, the second and third crossing the wing; a few black-tipped scales at apex form a slightly curving apical spot; cilia pale ocherous, with a line of narrowly black-tipped scales curving around apex. Hind wings and cilia pale grayish ocherous. Legs ocherous, fuscousshaded, hind tarsal segments black-tipped. Abdomen silvery beneath, grayish ocherous and fuscous-shaded above.
Alar expanse 8 mm. Male genitalia (fig. 181). Harpes typical of the section, long curved setae on inner and outer surfaces, costa with small basal process; socii stout, incurved, setae long; aedeagus short, stout, abruptly narrowing to the acute tip directed dorsad. Scale sac large, globular, scales slender.
Female genitalia (figs. 180, 180a, 180b). On intersegmental membrane ventral to ostium, an arch of black specialized scales, the arch broadest at each end with several rows of scales, narrowing mid-ventrally to a line of small scales ; a curved sclerotized plate posterior to ostium ; ostium wide, with flaring sclerotized walls; ductus bursae wide, with a sclerotized band bearing rows of minute teeth ; signum a ring constricting bursa copulatrix near its posterior end ; signum ribs with curved spines directed posteriorly, a few minute accessory spines.
Specimens examined. — 34, representing both sexes.
California: Alameda County, S type, "Larva on Quercus agrifolia," May [U.S.N.M., Type No. 12693] ; 7 cotypes, <5 , 9 , four of these " Larva on Quercus agrifolia," May [U.S.N.M.] ; 7, $, 2, May [U.S.N.M.] ; 1 $ [A.F.B. Coll.]; 1 S, VI.4.1908, (G. R. Pilate) (type of tetrella Braun ) [A.F.B. Coll. ] ; 2 $, 4 2, May 22 to June 7 (paratypes of tetrella Braun) [A.F.B. Coll.] ; San Francisco, 13,1?, May 18, 19, (H. H. Keifer) [U.S.N.M.] ; 1 (sex not determined), "on oak," Sept. 19 (ex Cal. Acad. Sci.) [U.S.N.M.] ; 1 $, "on Quercus agrifolia," June 1 (Wild Coll.) [Cornell U.] ; 1 9, October 4 (H. H. Keifer) [Cornell U.] ; Stanford, Santa Clara Co., 3 $, 9, "reared from Q. agrifolia," IV. 18. 46, em. V.22.46 (J. W. Tilden) [A.F.B.Coll.] ; Santa Barbara, 2 9, reared from cocoons on Quercus agrifolia Nee, rearing record B.860, imagoes August 8, 1915 [A.F.B.Coll.] ; Westwood Hills, Los Angeles Co., 2 9, "ex live oak" (H. M. Bohart) [A.F.B.Coll.].
The range of B. albertiella is probably coextensive with that of its food plant, Quercus agrifolia Nee, that is, it may be expected in the coastal areas and valleys of California south of San Francisco Bay. Farther to the east (in the foothills of the Sierras) another species (B. sopho pasta new species) seems to replace it. In the original description (Busck, 1909, I.e.) the cocoon is described as "pure white, rather bluntly rounded at the ends, evenly ribbed; length, 6 mm."
The near relationship of this species to the eastern packardella is evident from a comparison of the female genitalia. The long setae of the socii and harpes separate albertiella from all other oak-feeding species.

The oak-ribbed skeletonizer (Bucculatrix albertiella) is a moth species of the family Bucculatricidae. It was first described by August Busck in 1910. It is found along the west coast of the United States.

The wingspan is 8–9 mm.

The larvae feed on Quercus species.