| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genus Phyllonorycter (Lepidoptera-Gracillariidae) |
Associated with trees. On Betulaceae; Alnus.
Larvae. The larvae mining in leaves; in the upper-side. Found in July and 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 (the outer pair stouter); cremastal processes relatively short and basally broad.
Adults. Antennae blackish, white-tipped. Face shining white. Head black (or blackish). Collar whitish. Thorax brown (dark leaden or brassy brown). Wing-span 6–7 mm. Forewings shining dark, purplish-blackish-brownish; not clear shining white; without a basal streak; with well defined pale strigulae. Costal strigulae 4, or 5. The fasciae and strigulae inwardly sharply dark-edged. Dorsal strigulae 4 (the third dorsal between the third and fourth costals). Forewings with the first costal strigula not forming an acute angle with a dorsal one; with two transverse pale fasciae (via the first two costal and dorsal strigulae, the costals and dorsals indistinguishable as entities). Forewings with conspicuous dark apical marking to without conspicuous dark apical marks. Forewing apical marking if detectable, comprising a round blackish apical spot. The forewing fringe 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 (broadly linear to somewhat clavate, apically rounded). The left male genital valva not spine-tipped. 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.
Adults abroad May and August.
General comments. The dark forewings exhibiting two conspicuously contrasting, pale transverse bands.
Illustrations. • Phyllonorycter stettinensis: Jacobs (1945). • Phyllonorycter stettinensis: Ian Kimber (2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • Phyllonorycter species on Alder. 1, Phyllonorycter strigulatella; 2, P. stettinensis; 3, P. froelichiella; 4, P. kleemannella. Representation of the foodplant (Alder, Alnus glutinosa) from Sowerby and Johnson. • P. stettinensis, P. schreberella and P. cf. rajella (as alnifolia): Stainton (1855) Plate V, under Lithocolletis. PHYLLONORYCTER. 1, P. stettinensis: imago (1m), larva (1a), and alder leaf with two mines (1b). 2, P. schreberella: imago (2m), larva (2a) and mined elm leaf (2b). 3, cf. P. rajella: imago (3m), larva (3a), and mined alder leaf (3b). • Stainton (1855), Plate V: original legend.. • Phyllonorycter stettinensis, 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’.
