| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genus Phyllonorycter (Lepidoptera-Gracillariidae) |
Associated with trees. On Fagaceae; native (deciduous) Quercus.
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 with two pairs of hooked processes; two pairs of cremastal processes more or less equal in length; cremastal processes relatively short and basally broad.
Adults. Antennae white to the base. Face white. Head white. Thorax white; without a median pale streak. Wing-span 7–8 mm. Forewings shining white to whitish (slightly brassy beyond the middle); clear shining white with coloured markings (slightly brassy beyond the middle); exhibiting conspicuous transverse dark (black-edged, ochreous) fasciae; with a well defined basal streak. The basal streak fuscous on the light background (the slender, fuscous median line extending to the middle of the wing). Forewings with well defined pale strigulae (or at least, interpretable as such), or lacking well defined pale strigulae. Costal strigulae (at least interpretable as) 4. Dorsal strigulae (at least interpretable as) 3. The last fascia straight. Forewings with conspicuous dark apical marking. Forewing apical marking comprising an elongate blackish apical spot. The forewing fringe traversed towards the apex by a narrow, curved dark line to not traversed by a dark line (then with an ill defined 'hook'); narrowly dark-lined along the bases of the cilia, or narrowly dark-lined along the bases of the cilia and narrowly dark-lined along the tips of the apical cilia (the outer line indistinct). The forewing basal fringe line more or less complete, or confined to the apical region or fading dorsally (stronger apically, fading dorsally). Hindwing cilia white.
The left and right male genital valvae similar in size and form (broadly lanceolate). The left male genital valva not spine-tipped (at least, not conspicuously so); without marginal spines. The left and right male genital valvae having free costae. The left and right free costae arising near the bases of the valvae; similar (basally short, but with straight spine-tips extending to half the length of the valvae). The aedeagus long and relatively slender with a triangular barb towards the apex.
Adults abroad May and August.
Illustrations. • Phyllonorycter heegeriella: Jacobs (1945). • 9 species on deciduous oak. 1, Phyllonorycter (Lithocolletis) roboris; 2, P. harrisella; 3, P. heegeriella; 4, P. messaniella; 5, P. quercifoliella; 6, P. distentella; 7, P. lautella; 8, P. muelleriella; 9, P. kuhlweiniella. • Phyllonorycter heegeriella, 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’.
