Nemapogon cloacella
Encyclopedia
- "Tinea infimella" redirects here. The species invalidly described under that name by Corbet in 1943 is Nemapogon variatellaNemapogon variatellaNemapogon variatella is a moth of the Tineidae family. It is found in almost all of Europe. It is also found in North America.The wingspan is about 12 mm....
.
The Cork Moth (Nemapogon cloacella) is a species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of tineoid moth. It belongs to the fungus moth family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
(Tineidae), and therein to the subfamily Nemapogoninae. Its junior synonym N. infimella was established by G.H. Heydenreich
Gustav Heinrich Heydenreich
Gustav Heinrich Heydenreich was a German entomologist.Gustav Heinrich Heydenreich specialised in Lepidoptera.His collection is conserved in Senckenberg Museum. He wrote Lepidopterorum Europaerum Catalogus methodicus, published in Leipzig in 1851, in which he described new...
in the 1851 volume of his Lepidopterorum Europaeorum Catalogus Methodicus, but many sources still attribute it to G.A.W. Herrich-Schäffer
Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer
Dr Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer was a German entomologist and physician. He was born, and died, in Regensburg. Herrich-Schäffer studied and collected particularly butterflies and moths...
, who supposedly narrowly beat Heidenreich in (re)describing the species. But as it seems, Herrich-Schäffer was merely one of the first to use the name proposed by Heydenreich, as the volume of his Systematische Bearbeitung der Schmetterlinge von Europa where he discussed the Cork Moth was not published until 1853 or 1854. That all nonwithstanding, the species had been already validly described by A.H. Haworth
Adrian Hardy Haworth
Adrian Hardy Haworth was an English entomologist, botanist and carcinologist.He was the son of Benjamin Haworth of Haworth Hall...
in the 1828 volume of Lepidoptera Britannica.
Ecology and description
N. cloacella is a widespread species, found all across western EurasiaEurasia
Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...
. It is reportedly absent from France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, but given that it occurs in all surrounding countries, this is unlikely to be correct. Its preferred habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
is woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
with a large amount of dead trees. The crepuscular
Crepuscular
Crepuscular animals are those that are active primarily during twilight, that is during dawn and dusk. The word is derived from the Latin word crepusculum, meaning "twilight." Crepuscular is, thus, in contrast with diurnal and nocturnal behavior. Crepuscular animals may also be active on a bright...
adults are on the wing throughout the summer and are typically encountered at dusk
Dusk
Dusk is the beginning of darkness in the evening, and occurs after twilight, when the sky generally remains bright and blue. Civil dusk is when the earth has rotated enough that the center of the sun is at 6° below the local horizon...
but sometimes can be seen earlier in the day.
This small moth has a wingspan of 10–18 mm. The forewings are irregularly mottled black, white and grey, resembling congener
Congener
Congener has several different meanings depending on the field in which it is used. Colloquially, it is used to mean a person or thing like another, in character or action.-Biology:In biology, congeners are organisms within the same genus...
s such as the European Corn Moth (N. granella). The head has a tuft of pale yellow hairs. 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 mainly on bracket fungi. Their food spectrum has been subject to considerable dispute in the past due to confusion with the European Corn Moth. Some claimed that N. cloacella caterpillars eat a wide range of food – dried fruit
Dried fruit
Dried fruit is fruit where the majority of the original water content has been removed either naturally, through sun drying, or through the use of specialized dryers or dehydrators. Dried fruit has a long tradition of use dating back to the fourth millennium BC in Mesopotamia, and is prized...
and mushroom
Mushroom
A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that...
s, seeds and other vegetable material, e.g. cereal
Cereal
Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
grain
GRAIN
GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...
s, Capsicum annuum
Capsicum annuum
Capsicum annuum is a domesticated species of the plant genus Capsicum native to southern North America and northern South America. The three species C. annuum, C. frutescens and C. chinense all evolved from a single common ancestor located somewhere in the northwest Brazil - Colombia area...
fruit, poppyseed (Papaver somniferum), bitter almonds (Prunus amygdalus amara) or bilberries (Vaccinium), but even cork (hence its common name) and beeswax
Beeswax
Beeswax is a natural wax produced in the bee hive of honey bees of the genus Apis. It is mainly esters of fatty acids and various long chain alcohols...
. Other authors stated that they were only found on the Oak Mazegill fungus (Daedalea quercina), and ascribed the wide range of foodstuffs to N. granella. But as it seems, neither extreme was correct; the caterpillars do eat preferentially fungi – not only the Oak Mazegill but also others (e.g. Birch Polypore, Piptoporus betulinus) –, feeding on plant debris and similar materials when their favorite food is not available.