Bucculatrix leptalea Braun 1963

Bucculatrix leptalea new species Face white, tuft white, centrally with a few pale gray hairs; eye-caps white, very small, antennal stalk gray, faintly annulate. Fore wing (fig. 14) white with pale ocherous marks, in which some of the scales ma)' be darker-tipped, and two blackish dots. Sometimes a faint ocherous suffusion along fold from base, and sometimes a similar faint suffusion below costa at about one-third; at two-thirds of costa, an oblique pale ocherous streak in which the scales are minutely darker-tipped; near apex on costa a more or less distinct patch of such scales, and opposite it, a similar patch of scales, usually less defined; just beyond middle of fold, a group of a few black scales (sometimes absent) followed by pale ocherous. minutely darker-tipped scales ; on the disc, a black dot, often more distinct than the one in the fold, is farther from the black spot in fold than it is from a few black-tipped scales at apex ; scattered black-tipped scales in the cilia of termen. Hind wings and cilia white, with a faint ocherous tinge toward apex. Legs white, tarsal segments pale gray-tipped. Abdomen with ocherous and fuscous shading.
Alar expanse 7.5 to 8 mm.
Male genitalia (figs. 148, 148a, 148b, 148c). Harpe typical of the group, broad at base tapering to apex, setae short, heavy at apex ; socii broad, widely separated, each terminating in a small pointed setose lobe, and bearing on the ventral surface a narrow elongate lobe, setose along its free margin (fig. 148a) ; subscaphium a narrow spinulose ridge; anellus conical, asymmetric, aperture to
the right; aedeagus tapering, curled at apex; vinculum with a slight anterior sinus; scale sac (fig. 148c) small, scales slender.
Female genitalia (figs. 147, 147a). Segment 9 not greatly modified, rasping rods weak, vaginal setae very minute and slender ; on each side of the wide ostium, a minutely spinulose band ; near lateral margin of 8, a tuft of specialized scales ; on dorsal surface of 8, a pair of circular depressed minutely spinulose areas, indistinctly connected by a sclerotized line; at the anterior margin of the intersegmental membrane, a row of slender specialized scales, overlain and hidden by the normal scales of the margin of the sclerotized anterior half of segment 7 ; a sclerotized section of the ductus bursae curves abruptly to the right ; signum a ring very obliquely (almost longitudinally) placed, signum ribs (fig. 147a 1 with abruptly tapering strong spines.
Type. — c? , Snake River, opposite Clarkston, Washington, March 6, 1931, " reared from Artemisia dracunculus," (J. F. Gates Clarke) [U.S.N.M., Type No. 65027].
Allotype. — 9, same data as the type.
Paratypes. — 2 $ , 6 2 , same data as the type, except dates of emergence from March 2 to March 19 (J. F. Gates Clarke) [U.S.N.M. and A.F.B.Coll.] ; 1 $, Wilma, Whitman County, Washington, March 27 ', 1934. " reared from Artemisia dracunculoides " (J. F. Gates Clarke) [U.S.N.M.]; 4 $, Aweme (southwest of Brandon), Manitoba. May 27, 1921 (N. Criddle) [C.N. Coll.] ; 1 S, Loma Linda, San Bernardino County, California, June 1, 1912 (G. R. Pilate) [A.F.B.Coll.].
The food plant, recorded on the specimen labels as Artemisia dracunculus or Artemisia dracunculoides, is listed under several names in the various manuals — in Gleason (1952) as Artemisia dracunculus L., with dracunculoides Pursh and glauca Pall, as synonyms ; in Fernald (1950) as glauca (including A. dracunculoides and A. Dracunculus, subsp. glauca), and in older Gray's Manual (7th edition) as dracunculoides.
The narrow ventral lobe of socius, fringed with setae, separates this species on genitalic characters from all American species. By genitalia, B. leptalea is very closely allied to the European B. artemisiae H.-S. ; the female genitalia are quite similar, but the dorsal circular areas of segment 8, are, in B. artemisiae, scaled, not merely minutely spinulose as in B. leptalea; the figure of the male of B. artemisiae in " The Genitalia of the Tineina " by Pierce and Metcalfe shows a ventral lobe similar to that of B. leptalea, but such a lobe is not present on a slide of the male genitalia made from a European specimen from the Hofmann Collection in the United States National Museum. By markings the two species would not he confused.
In wing markings. B. Icptalca can scarcely he distinguished from B. seorsa new species on Artemisia tridentata from California; the slight differences in wing markings are noted under the latter species.

Bucculatrix leptalea is a moth in the family Bucculatricidae. It was described by Annette Frances Braun in 1953. It is found in North America, where it has been recorded from Michigan, Manitoba, Washington and California.

The larvae feed on Artemisia dracunculus.