| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genus Phyllonorycter (Lepidoptera-Gracillariidae) |
Associated with shrubs. On Salicaceae; Salix (only Salix repens?).
Larvae. The larvae mining in leaves; in the under-side. Found in July, or September to October. The larva not constructing a definite cocoon.
Pupa. The pupal cremaster with two pairs of hooked processes; two pairs of cremastal processes very unequal in length (the inner pair much shorter); cremastal processes relatively short and basally broad.
Adults. Face golden whitish. Head orange. Thorax golden yellow, or brown; with a conspicuous median pale streak. Wing-span 5–7 mm. Forewings golden ochreous; not clear shining white; with a well defined basal streak (this narrow, traversing about a third of the wing). The basal streak pale; dark-edged above (and below). Forewings with well defined pale strigulae (shining white). Costal strigulae 5 (the first small). Dorsal strigulae 3. Forewings with the first costal strigula not forming an acute angle with a dorsal one; without transverse pale fasciae. Forewings with conspicuous dark apical marking. Forewing apical marking comprising a round blackish apical spot to comprising an elongate blackish apical spot. The forewing fringe narrowly dark-lined along the bases of the cilia. The forewing basal fringe line confined to the apical region or fading dorsally. Hindwing cilia slightly golden.
The left and right male genital valvae very dissimilar (the left ovate with a short curved spine-tip, the right narrower with no spine). The left male genital valva shortly retrorsely tipped by a hooked spine. 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 with no signum (at least, not illustrated).
Adults abroad May and August.
Illustrations. • Phyllonorycter quinqueguttella: Jacobs (1945). • 5 species on Salix in Britain. 1, Phyllonorycter (Lithocolletis) salicolella; 2, P. quinqueguttella; 3, P. hilarella; 4, P. salictella viminiella; 5, P. viminetorum. See notes for legend. • Phyllonorycter quinqueguttella, 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’.
