| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genus Phyllonorycter (Lepidoptera-Gracillariidae) |
Associated with shrubs. On Salicaceae; Salix (sallows, especially S. cinerea).
Larvae. The larvae mining in leaves; in the under-side (between lateral veins, causing the upper surface to become inflated and folding). Found in July, August, and October. The larva pupating in a morphologically distinct cocoon.
Pupa. The pupal cremaster with one pair of hooked processes; cremastal processes relatively short and basally broad.
Adults. Antennae coloured (white, annulated light fuscous, scape whte, two terminal segments black). Head posteriorly whitish, the vertical tuft orange-brown. Thorax golden ochreous; with a conspicuous median pale streak. Wing-span 7–8 mm. Forewings not clear shining white; lacking dark transverse fasciae; lacking the oblique golden brown fascia from the base of the costa exhibited by P. roboris; with a well defined basal streak. The basal streak pale; markedly bent; distally dark-edged above (and below). Forewings with well defined pale strigulae. Costal strigulae 4; white. The fasciae and strigulae inwardly sharply dark-edged. The first costal strigula dark-margined posteriorly. Dorsal strigulae 3. Forewings with the first costal strigula approaching a dorsal one at an acute angle; without transverse pale fasciae. Forewings with conspicuous dark apical marking. Forewing apical marking comprising a dark apical strigula (this diffuse and rather broad). The forewing fringe narrowly dark-lined along the bases of the cilia. The forewing basal fringe line complete. Hindwing cilia pale fuscous.
The left and right male genital valvae very dissimilar (the same length and both oblong with a short spine towards the apex, but the right much narrower - cf. P. salicicolella). The left male genital valva retrorsely tipped by a hooked spine (the right one with a shorterone). The left and right male genital valvae without free costae. The aedeagus long and relatively slender with a triangular barb towards the apex.
Adults abroad May to June, August.
General comments. Adventive, native to Fennoscandia, northern Russia to the Pyrenees, Italy and Bulgaria to Ukraine, first recorded in Britain in 1970. For images see http://www.hantsmoths.org.uk/species/0336.php, but cf. http://www.lepiforum.de/lepiwiki.pl?Phyllonorycter_Dubitella.
Illustrations. • Phyllonorycter dubitella: Ben Smart(2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • Phyllonorycter dubitella: Agassiz (1980), Proc. Brit. Ent. Nat. Hist. Soc. 13–15.
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’.
