| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genus Phyllonorycter (Lepidoptera-Gracillariidae) |
Associated with trees (said by Jacobs to prefer seedlings and saplings, but probably not confined to Q. petraea as implied by him). 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 (this papery).
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 (the outer pair stouter).
Adults. Face metallic silvery. Head black. Thorax shining-metallic; silvery or leaden. Wing-span 6–8 mm. Forewings ochreous orange, or golden brown; not clear shining white; with a well defined basal streak (this short, traversing to a third of the wing or less). The basal streak pale; dark-edged above. Forewings with well defined pale strigulae (silvery white, set in pairs). Costal strigulae 3. Dorsal strigulae 3. Forewings without transverse pale fasciae (the first pair of strigulae not quite coalescing). Forewings with conspicuous dark apical marking. Forewing apical marking comprising an elongate blackish apical spot. The forewing fringe narrowly dark-lined along the bases of the cilia. The forewing basal fringe line complete. Hindwing cilia fuscous.
The left and right male genital valvae similar in size and form (narrowly elongate-ovate, the apices truncated). The left male genital valva not spine-tipped (with a short straight spine from the upper side near the apex). The left and right male genital valvae having free costae. The left and right free costae more or less completely detached from the valvae; similar (basally short, but tipped with long straight spines). The aedeagus long and relatively slender with a triangular barb towards the apex. The female genitalia exhibiting a signum on the bursa copulatrix (double pointed).
Adults abroad May and August.
Illustrations. • Phyllonorycter lautella: 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 lautella: Ian Kimber (2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • Phyllonorycter lautella, mines in oak: Ian Kimber (2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • Phyllonorycter lautella, 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’.
