| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genus Phyllonorycter (Lepidoptera-Gracillariidae) |
Synonym: Phyllonorycter emberizapennella (Duponchel)
Associated with shrubs. On Caprifoliaceae; Lonicera and Symphoricarpos.
Larvae. The larvae mining in leaves; in the under-side. Found in July, or September to October. The larva pupating in a morphologically distinct cocoon.
Pupa. The pupal cremaster much reduced, with one pair of hooked processes (these lateral, minute).
Adults. Antennae whitish, ringed dark fuscous. Face white. Head orange, or brown. Collar whitish. Thorax coppery or light orange brown, white laterally and anteriorly. Wing-span 8–10 mm. Forewings shining golden ochreous; not clear shining white; with a well defined basal streak (this traversing about a quarter of the wing). The basal streak pale; not dark-edged above. Forewings with well defined pale strigulae (these dead white). Costal strigulae 4. Dorsal strigulae 4. Forewings with the first costal strigula not forming an acute angle with a dorsal one; with two transverse pale fasciae (via the first two pairs of strigulae, at least the outer one slightly bent in the region of the coalescence of the latter). Forewings with conspicuous dark apical marking, or without conspicuous dark apical marks. Forewing apical marking if detectable, comprising an elongate blackish apical spot, or comprising a dark apical strigula. The forewing fringe not dark-lined (the fringe line almost obsolete). Hindwing cilia whitish fuscous.
The left and right male genital valvae similar in size and form (very broadly curved-lanceolate). The left male genital valva not spine-tipped. 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 (pointed at either end).
Adults abroad May and August.
Illustrations. • Phyllonorycter emberizaepenella: Jacobs (1945). • Phyllonorycter species on Caprifoliaceae. 1, Phyllonorycter trifasciella; 2, P. emberizaepenella. Depicted here with Lonicera caprifolium (also on other species of Honeysuckle, and Symphoricarpos). • P. trifasciella, P. scabiosella and P. emberizaepenella: Stainton (1855) Plate VIII. PHYLLONORYCTER. 1, P. trifasciella: imago (1m), larva (1a), and mined honeysuckle leaf (1b). 2, P. scabiosella: imago (2m), larva (2a), and mined Scabiosa columbaria leaf (2b). 3, P. emberizaepennella: imago (3m), larva (3a) and mined honeysuckle leaf (3b). • Stainton (1855), Plate VIII: original legend.. • Phyllonorycter emberizaepenella, adult and mine in Symphoricarpos: Ian Kimber (2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • Phyllonorycter emberizaepenella, 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’.
