| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genus Phyllonorycter (Lepidoptera-Gracillariidae) |
Synonym: Phyllonorycter roborella (Stainton)
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 long and thin (widely divergent, the outer pair directed ventrally).
Adults. Antennae coloured (white, each segment acropetally ringed brown). Face shining white. Head white. Thorax light brown; with a conspicuous median pale streak. Wing-span 7–9 mm. Forewings shining white; clear shining white with coloured markings; exhibiting conspicuous transverse dark (black-edged, ochreous) fasciae (with an oblique golden brown fascia from the base of the costa, and a narrow angulated one beyond the middle); with a conspicuous, very oblique, golden brown and posteriorly fuscous-edged fascia from the base of the costa; without a basal streak; exhibiting coloured strigulae and fasciae on a white background, and thus uninterpretable in the usual descriptive terms. Forewings with conspicuous dark apical marking. Forewing apical marking comprising a black dot within a golden-brown apical spot. The forewing fringe traversed towards the apex by a narrow, curved dark line (originating from the apical spot); narrowly dark-lined along the bases of the cilia. The forewing basal fringe line complete.
The left and right male genital valvae similar in size and form (oval, round-tipped). The left male genital valva not spine-tipped; without marginal spines. The left and right male genital valvae having free costae. The left and right free costae completely detached from the valvae to arising near the bases of the valvae; similar (with the long straight apical spines included, almost equalling their valvae). The aedeagus long and relatively slender with a triangular barb towards the apex. The female genitalia exhibiting a signum on the bursa copulatrix (comprising a row of teeth).
Adults abroad May and August.
Illustrations. • Phyllonorycter roboris: Ian Kimber (2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • Phyllonorycter roboris, mine in Oak: Ian Kimber (2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • Phyllonorycter roboris, mine with emergent pupa: Ian Kimber (2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • Phyllonorycter roboris: 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 roboris, 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’.
