| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genus Phyllonorycter (Lepidoptera-Gracillariidae) |
Synonym: Phyllonorycter alnifoliella (Stephens)
Associated with shrubs. On Caprifoliaceae; Leycesteria, Lonicera, and Symphoricarpos.
Larvae. The larvae mining in leaves; in the under-side. Found in March to April, or July and October. The larva not constructing a definite cocoon.
Pupa. The pupal cremaster with two pairs of hooked processes (reduced, the anal segment elongate); two pairs of cremastal processes small, very unequal in length (the inner smaller); cremastal processes relatively short and basally broad.
Adults. Face white. Head dark orange, or brown. Thorax light pinkish orange, or brown. Wing-span 7–9 mm. Forewings brownish orange; not clear shining white; without a basal streak; with well defined pale strigulae (these white, the first three joining or approaching the dorsals and each preceded by a dense blackish band which dilates at costa and dorsum). Costal strigulae 4; white. Dorsal strigulae 3. Forewings with three transverse pale fasciae (via the first three pairs of strigulae, the first two fasciae somewhat bent, the outer one more or less straight); with two costal spots beyond the second fascia. Forewings with conspicuous dark apical marking. Forewing apical marking comprising a round blackish apical spot (this preceded by a whitish wedge-shaped costal spot). The forewing fringe not dark-lined (?). Hindwing cilia light fuscous.
The left and right male genital valvae similar in size and form (narrowly lanceolate, each with a short apical spine). The left male genital valva tipped by a straight spine. The left and right male genital valvae without free costae. The aedeagus short and relatively stumpy, not barbed (bulbed, with expanded orifice). The female genitalia exhibiting a signum on the bursa copulatrix (double pointed at each end).
Adults abroad May, August, and November.
Illustrations. • Phyllonorycter trifasciella: Jacobs (1945). • Phyllonorycter trifasciella: Ian Kimber (2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • Phyllonorycter trifasciella, mines in Lonicera: Ian Kimber (2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • Phyllonorycter species on Caprifoliaceae. 1, Phyllonorycter trifasciella; 2, P. emberizaepenella. Depicted here with Lonicera caprifolium (also on other species of Honeysuckle, Leycesteria, and Symphoricarpos). • P. trifasciella, P. scabiosella and P. emberizaepenella: Stainton (1855) Plate VIII. PHYLLONORYCTER. 1, P. trifasciella: imago (1m), larva (1a), and mined honeysuckle leaf (1b). 2, P. scabiosella: imago (2m), larva (2a), and mined Scabiosa columbaria leaf (2b). 3, P. emberizaepennella: imago (3m), larva (3a) and mined honeysuckle leaf (3b). • Stainton (1855), Plate VIII: original legend.. • Phyllonorycter trifasciella, 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’.
