Ethmia pusiella is a moth

Moth

A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

 of the family Ethmiidae

Ethmiidae

Ethmiidae is a family of small moths in the superfamily Gelechioidea. It is sometimes included in the Elachistidae or the Oecophoridae as a subfamily Ethmiinae.-Genera:...

, which is sometimes included in Elachistidae

Elachistidae

| image = Elachista rufocinerea 2.jpg| image_width = 240px| image_caption = Adult Elachista rufocinerea,demonstrating its tiny size versus an aphid and a spider mite | regnum = Animalia| phylum = Arthropoda| classis = Insecta...

 or Oecophoridae

Oecophoridae

Oecophoridae is a family of small moths in the superfamily Gelechioidea. The phylogeny and systematics of gelechoid moths are still not fully resolved, and the circumscription of the Oecophoridae is strongly affected by this....

 as a subfamily. It occurs throughout Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and eastwards to the Tien Shan mountains of eastern Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

.
The wingspan

Wingspan

The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

 is 19-20 mm.

The caterpillar

Caterpillar

Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...

s feed on Common Gromwell (Lithospermum officinale) and Pulmonaria officinalis

Pulmonaria officinalis

Pulmonaria officinalis, common name Lungwort or Common Lungwort, is an herbaceous evergreen perennial rhizomatous plant of the genus Pulmonaria, belonging to the family Boraginaceae-Etymology:...

. They have also been recorded to be myrmecophilous.

Taxonomy and systematics

E. pusiella is the type species

Type species

In biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...

 of the proposed genera

Genera

Genera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...

 Anesychia and Melanoleuca, which are nowadays considered junior synonyms of Ethmia

Ethmia

Ethmia is a large genus of small moths. It is the type genus of the gelechioid family Ethmiidae, which is sometimes included in Elachistidae or Oecophoridae as subfamily.-References:...

. If considered separate from Ethmia, the senior synonym Anesychia must be used.

Two subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

 are accepted nowadays:

• E. p. pusiella – western populations, east to Ural Mountains
  Ural Mountains
  The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...
  
   and Asia Minor
  Asia Minor
  Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
  
  
• E. p. deletella – eastern populations, Central Asia and Tien Shan

In earlier times, E. candidella and E. fumidella were considered varieties of E. pusiella.

Junior synonyms of E. pusiella are:

• Ethmia deletella de Lattin, 1963
• Ethmia lithospermella (Hübner, 1789)
• Ethmia scalacella (Kühn, 1777)
• Phalaena (Tinea) pusiella Linnaeus, 1758
• Tinea lithospermella Hübner, 1789
• Tinea scalacella Kühn, 1777