| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genus Phyllonorycter (Lepidoptera-Gracillariidae) |
Synonym: padella (Glitz)
Associated with trees. On Rosaceae; Prunus and Sorbus.
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 (this whitish, strong).
Pupa. The pupal cremaster with two pairs of hooked processes; two pairs of cremastal processes more or less equal in length to very unequal in length (the outer pair stouter); cremastal processes relatively short and basally broad.
Adults. Antennae shining grey, with darker ringing. Face white. Head orange, or brown (ferrugineous). Collar white. Thorax golden brown and white (anteriorly); with a conspicuous median pale streak. Wing-span 7–9 mm. Forewings light golden ochreous; not clear shining white; with a well defined basal streak (this straight, traversing to about a third of the wing). The basal streak pale; dark-edged above. Forewings with well defined pale strigulae (these white). 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 round 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 (strong only apically). Hindwing cilia whitish with a coppery sheen. Posterior tarsi whitish, without dark spots.
The left and right male genital valvae similar in size and form (oblong-linear, blunt 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 arising near the bases of the valvae; similar (including the short spine-tips, about half to two thirds as long as the valvae). The aedeagus long and relatively slender with a triangular barb towards the apex. The female genitalia exhibiting a signum on the bursa copulatrix (with a point at each end).
Adults abroad April to May, August.
Illustrations. • Phyllonorycter sorbi: Jacobs (1945). • Phyllonorycter sorbi and a food-plant. Phyllonorycter sorbi. The rather sub-standard representation of one of its two principal food-plants (Sorbus aucuparia, the Rowan or Mountain Ash) is from Sowerby and Johnson. • Phyllonorycter sorbi: I. Kimber (2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • Phyllonorycter sorbi, mine in Sorbus: I. Kimber (2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • Phyllonorycter sorbi, 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’.
