| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genus Phyllonorycter (Lepidoptera-Gracillariidae) |
~Phyllonorycter spinicolella?
Associated with trees. On Rosaceae; Prunus (P. avium and P. cerasus).
Larvae. The larvae mining in leaves; in the under-side. Found in July, or September to December, or January to April (hibernating). The larva pupating in a morphologically distinct cocoon to not constructing a definite cocoon (pupating in a white, silk-lined chamber).
Pupa. The pupal cremaster with two pairs of hooked processes; two pairs of cremastal processes more or less equal in length to very unequal in length (the outer pair stouter); cremastal processes relatively short and basally broad.
Adults. Face white. Head orange and brown. Thorax orange, or brown (anteriorly white-edged); with a conspicuous median pale streak. Wing-span 8–9 mm. Forewings golden orange; not clear shining white; with a well defined basal streak (this long and narrow, traversing to near the middle of the wing). The basal streak pale; relatively long, slender and sinuate and markedly bent (upwards); not dark-edged above. Forewings with well defined pale strigulae (these clear white). Costal strigulae 4. Dorsal strigulae 3. Forewings with the first costal strigula approaching a dorsal one at an acute angle; with one transverse pale fascia (sometimes, via joining of the first costal and the first dorsal strigulae), or without transverse pale fasciae. Forewings with conspicuous dark apical marking. Forewing apical marking comprising a dark apical strigula edged white above. The forewing fringe narrowly dark-lined along the bases of the cilia. The forewing basal fringe line complete. Hindwing cilia light fuscous (slightly golden). Posterior tarsi whitish, without dark spots.
The left and right male genital valvae similar in size and form (narrowly elongate, each with a short spine costally short of the apex). The left male genital valva not spine-tipped; (this and the right one) with a single costal-marginal spine towards the apex. The left and right male genital valvae having free costae. The left and right free costae completely detached from the valvae to arising near the bases of the valvae; similar (very short in the body, but with very long, distally curving apical spines at least as long as their valvae). The aedeagus long and relatively slender with a triangular barb towards the apex. The female genitalia exhibiting a signum on the bursa copulatrix (small).
Adults abroad May and August.
General comments. “Perhaps a foodplant form of P. spinicolella.” (Bradley (2000).
Illustrations. • Phyllonorycter cerasicolella: Jacobs (1945). • Phyllonorycter cerasicolella, with food-plant. Phyllonorycter cerasicolella, with Prunus cerasus (Sour or Dwarf Cherry). The plant from Curtis. • Phyllonorycter cerasicolella, adult and mine on Prunus sp.: I. Kimber (2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • Phyllonorycter cerasicolella, genitalia, 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’.
