| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genus Phyllonorycter (Lepidoptera-Gracillariidae) |
Associated with trees. On Betulaceae; Betula spp. (said to prefer seedlings).
Larvae. The larvae mining in leaves; in the under-side. Found in July, or September to October. The larva not constructing a definite cocoon.
Pupa. The pupal cremaster with one pair of hooked processes (a very small outer pair, the inner lacking).
Adults. Antennae shining white to the base (ringed fuscous). Face metallic silvery. Head golden orange and fuscous. Thorax orange, or brown; with a conspicuous median pale streak. Wing-span 5–7 mm. Forewings shining golden orange; not clear shining white; with a well defined basal streak. The basal streak fuscous on the light background; straight, neither markedly long and slender nor sinuate (traversing about a third of the wing and sometimes reaching the white fascia); not dark-edged above (but dark-margined below, towards the apex). Forewings with well defined pale strigulae (shining white). Costal strigulae 4. Dorsal strigulae 3. Forewings with the first costal strigula not forming an acute angle with a dorsal one; with one transverse pale fascia (via coalescence of the first pair of strigulae, which are unrecognisable as discrete entities). The fascia angulated. Forewings with conspicuous dark apical marking. Forewing apical marking comprising a round blackish apical spot. The forewing fringe narrowly dark-lined along the bases of the cilia. The forewing basal fringe line confined to the apical region or fading dorsally (short). Hindwing cilia whitish fuscous. The left and right male genital valvae somewhat bilobed distally.
The left and right male genital valvae similar in size and form to very dissimilar (the left more conspicuously distally lobed). The left male genital valva tipped by a short curving spine. 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 (narrow, pointed at either end).
Adults abroad May and August.
Illustrations. • Phyllonorycter anderidae: Jacobs (1945). • Phyllonorycter species on Birch. 1, Phyllonorycter (Lithocolletis) cavella; 2, P. ulmifoliella; 3, P. anderidae; 4, P. corylifoliella. • Phyllonorycter anderidae, 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’.
