| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genus Phyllonorycter (Lepidoptera-Gracillariidae) |
Synonyms: Phyllonorycter arcuatella (Stainton), Phyllonorycter sylvella (Haworth)
Associated with shrubs. On Aceraceae; Acer campestre.
Larvae. The larvae mining in leaves; in the under-side (in the characteristically downfolded tips of leaf lobes). Found in July and October. The larva pupating in a morphologically distinct cocoon.
Pupa. The pupal cremaster with two pairs of hooked processes; two pairs of cremastal processes more or less equal in length; cremastal processes long and thin.
Adults. Antennae white to the base (grey-ringed). Face white. Head white. Thorax white. Wing-span 7–9 mm. Forewings shining white; clear shining white with coloured markings; exhibiting conspicuous transverse dark (black-edged, ochreous) fasciae; without a basal streak; with well defined pale strigulae to lacking well defined pale strigulae (uninterpretable in the usual terms, the wing giving the appearance of dark strigulae and fasciae on a white background). The last fascia straight (but the middle pair sharply angulated). The antemedian fascia bluntly angulated. Forewings with conspicuous dark apical marking. Forewing apical marking comprising a dark apical strigula ending in a black spot. The forewing fringe having a sooty-fuscous fringe line. Hindwing cilia pale fuscous.
The left and right male genital valvae very dissimilar (the left ovate and much larger, the right almost linear). The left male genital valva retrorsely tipped by a hooked spine (the right valva having only a mid-costal one). The left and right male genital valvae without free costae. The aedeagus long and relatively slender with a triangular barb towards the apex. The female genitalia exhibiting a signum on the bursa copulatrix (but very small).
Adults abroad May and August.
Illustrations. • Phyllonorycter acerifoliella (as sylvella): Jacobs (1945). • Common British species on Aceraceae. 1, Phyllonorycter (Lithocolletis) acerifoliella, with its food-plant Acer campestre (Maple, left); 2, P. geniculella, with its food-plant Acer pseudoplatanus (Sycamore, right). P. platanoidella (on the Norway Maple, Acer platanoides: less likely to be encountered) is omitted. • P. acerifoliella (as sylvella), P. messaniella and P. ulmifoliella: Stainton (1855) Plate VI, under Lithocolletis. PYLLONORYCTER. 1, P. acerifoliella: imago (1m), larva (1a), and mined Acer leaf (1b). 2, P. messaniella: imago (2m), larva (2a) and mined leaf of evergreen oak (2b). 3, P. ulmifoliella: imago (3m), larva (3a) and mined birch leaf (3b). • Stainton (1855), Plate VI: original legend.. • Phyllonorycter acerifoliella (specimens): photo. Phyllonorycter acerifoliella. Mines 30/7/56, Monk's Wood, Hunts. L. Watson. • Phyllonorycter acerifoliella, leaf mine: Ben Smart(2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • Phyllonorycter acerifoliella (as sylvella), genitalia: Pierce and Metcalfe (1935).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genus Phyllonorycter (Lepidoptera-Gracillariidae) Version: 14th April 2022. delta-intkey.com’.
