Ottawa (Dunrobin), ON Canada

9 June 2005   10:50PM EST

My identification of this moth was based on Hodges, R.W., The Moths of North America North of Mexico, Fascicle 6.2, Gelechioidea Oecophoridae (London: E.W. Classey, 1974).  Psilocorsis reflexella is one of three species of Psilocorsis known to occur in the Ottawa area (J.D. Lafontaine, pers. comm., 2001), all of which share some similarities of appearance.  Any error with this identification is entirely my own.

Psilocorsis reflexella is the largest of the three Psilocorsis species that occur locally, with a wing length ranging from 6 to 11 mm (Hodges, 1974).  Covell (1984) indicates a wingspan from 1.6 to 2.5 cm.  The specimen pictured here has a wing length of approximately 10 to 11 mm, its size being a significant consideration in my identification of it as reflexella.  The ground color of the forewing is yellowish brown, with many small, somewhat discontinuous, wavy transverse dark gray-brown markings giving the wing a mottled appearance.  A dark discal dot is visible a little less than two-thirds of the way down the middle of the wing; the antemedial dot is somewhat harder to see in the specimen above, but is visible on the right wing about halfway between the discal dot and the base of the wing.  The fringe is grayish to yellowish brown, preceded by dark dots along part of the outer margin.

According to Hodges (1974), the larvae of Psilocorsis reflexella are leaf-tiers on a variety of tree species, including oak, beech, hickory, poplar, birch and others.

My records to date for Psilocorsis reflexella (each date representing "the night of") are in the table below: