| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genus Phyllonorycter (Lepidoptera-Gracillariidae) |
Synonym: Phyllonorycter dunningiella (Stainton)
Associated with trees. On Corylaceae; Corylus.
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 one pair of hooked processes (and short setae).
Adults. Face white. Head orange. Thorax light brown. Wing-span 7–9 mm. Forewings shining golden ochreous, or golden brown, or brown; not clear shining white; without a basal streak; with well defined pale strigulae (these white). Costal strigulae 4. The fasciae and strigulae inwardly sharply dark-edged. Dorsal strigulae 4. Forewings with the first costal strigula not forming an acute angle with a dorsal one; with two transverse pale fasciae (via coalescence of the first two pairs of strigulae, which are indistinguishable as entities); with two costal spots beyond the second fascia (these whitish). Forewings with conspicuous dark apical marking. Forewing apical marking comprising an elongate blackish apical spot (or an oval blackish apical spot). The forewing fringe narrowly dark-lined along the bases of the cilia. The forewing basal fringe line complete to confined to the apical region or fading dorsally (weakening dorsally). Hindwing cilia light brownish fuscous.
The left and right male genital valvae similar in size and form (asymmetrically ovate). The left male genital valva not spine-tipped (but with a pair of short straight spines arising very near the apex). The left and right male genital valvae interpretable as having free costae. The left and right free costae arising near the bases of the valvae (assuming they are correctly interpreted); similar (short, spineless). The aedeagus long and relatively slender with a triangular barb towards the apex. The female genitalia with no signum.
Adults abroad May and August.
Illustrations. • Phyllonorycter nicelli: Jacobs (1945). • Phyllonorycter nicellii: Ian Kimber (2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • Phyllonorycter nicellii, mine in Corylus: Ian Kimber (2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • Phyllonocycter species on Hazel. 1, Phyllonorycter coryli; 2, P. nicellii. • Phyllonorycter nicellii, 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’.
