| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genus Phyllonorycter (Lepidoptera-Gracillariidae) |
Synonyms: Phyllonorycter pomifoliella (Zeller), Phyllonorycter pyrivorella (Bankes)
Associated with trees. On Rosaceae; Malus, Prunus, Sorbus, and Pyrus.
Larvae. The larvae mining in leaves; in the under-side. Found in May to June, or July, or September to November. The larva pupating in a morphologically distinct cocoon to not constructing a definite cocoon (forming loose, pale brown, silken chamber at one end of the mine).
Pupa. The pupal cremaster with two pairs of hooked processes; two pairs of cremastal processes very unequal in length; cremastal processes relatively short and basally broad.
Adults. Face white. Head orange, or fuscous. Thorax golden brown and white (anteriorly); without a median pale streak. Wing-span 7–9 mm. Forewings fuscous orange (in the male), or brownish orange (in the female); not clear shining white; with a well defined basal streak (this narrow to rather broad, straightish, reaching to about a third). The basal streak pale; dark-edged above (and at its apex beneath). Forewings with well defined pale strigulae (these white, rather shining). Costal strigulae 4. 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. The forewing fringe narrowly dark-lined along the bases of the cilia. The forewing basal fringe line complete. Hindwing cilia white to fuscous (whitish fuscous or slightly coppery). Posterior tarsi with dark spots.
The left and right male genital valvae similar in size and form (narrowly elongate-lanceolate, blunt-tipped). The left male genital valva not spine-tipped. The left and right male genital valvae having free costae. The left and right free costae completely detached from the valvae; markedly different (the right including its straight spine-tip about two thirds the the length of the valva, the left much shorter). The aedeagus long and relatively slender with a triangular barb towards the apex. The female genitalia exhibiting a signum on the bursa copulatrix (rounded).
Adults abroad April to May, July and August.
Illustrations. • Phyllonorycter mespilella: Jacobs (1945). • Phyllonorycter mespilella (as P. pyrivorella): Jacobs 1945). • Two forms of Phyllonorycter mespilella, with food-plants. Phyllonorycter mespilella. The form depicted at the left, associated with Apple and Pear, was formerly regarded as a distinct species (P. pyrivorella). The accompanying plants, from Curtis, are Malus sylvestris (Crab apple,left), and Sorbus torminalis (Wild Service). • P. mespilella (as torminella), P. spinicolella and P. maestingella (as faginella): Stainton (1855) Plate III, under Lithocolletis. PHYLLONORYCTER. 1, P. mespilella: imago (1m), larva (1a), and mined leaf of Sorbus torminalis (1b). 2, P. spinicolella: imago (2m), larva (2a), and mined sloe leaf (2b). 3, P. maestingella: imago (3m), larva (3a), and mined beech leaf (3b). • Stainton (1855), Plate III: original legend. • P. mespilella (Hübner) and 5 other species: Hübner, 1796–1819. • Phyllonorycter mespilella, 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’.
