| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genus Phyllonorycter (Lepidoptera-Gracillariidae) |
Associated with trees. On Salicaceae; Salix (mainly on the willows, S. viminalis and S. fragilis).
Larvae. The larvae mining in leaves; in the under-side. Found in June to 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 (or the inner pair not much shorter); cremastal processes relatively short and basally broad (the outer pair stouter).
Adults. Antennae shining white to the base (fuscous-ringed). Face coloured (golden). Head golden brown. Thorax golden yellow, or ochreous to brown; with a conspicuous median pale streak, or without a median pale streak. Wing-span 7–9 mm. Forewings shining ochreous; not clear shining white; suffused throughout with fuscous, or not suffused throughout with fuscous; with a well defined basal streak to without a basal streak (the streak relatively indistinct). The basal streak pale; markedly bent; not dark-edged above. Forewings with well defined pale strigulae to lacking well defined pale strigulae (the conventional costal and dorsal, wedge-shaped spots paler golden than the ground colour, but quite obscure and sometimes scarcely detectable). Costal strigulae (if discenable,) 4. Dorsal strigulae (if discernable) 3. Forewings with the first costal strigula approaching a dorsal one at an acute angle (when the strigulae are detectable); 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 more or less confined to the apical region or fading dorsally. Hindwing cilia light fuscous (to slightly golden).
The left and right male genital valvae very dissimilar (the right broadly linear with truncate apex, the left almost ovate but with a short curved spine from its pointed tip). The left male genital valva 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 obscurely exhibiting a signum on the bursa copulatrix.
Adults abroad May and August.
Illustrations. • Phyllonorycter viminiella: Jacobs (1945). • Phyllonorycter viminiella: Ian Kimber (2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • Phyllonorycter viminiella, mine in Salix: Ian Kimber (2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • 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. • P. viminetorum, P. salicolella and P. salictella viminiella: Stainton (1855) Plate I, under Lithocolletis. PHYLLONORYCTER. 1, P. viminetorum: imago (1m), larva (1a), and mined leaf of Salix viminalis (1b). 2, P. salicolella: imago (2m), larva (2a), and mined leaf of Salix caprea (2b). 3, P. salictella viminiella: imago (3m), larva (3a), and mined leaf of Salix caprea (3b). • Stainton (1855), Plate I: original legend.. • Phyllonorycter salictella viminiella, 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’.
