| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genus Phyllonorycter (Lepidoptera-Gracillariidae) |
Synonym: Phyllonorycter strigifasciella (Stainton)
Associated with trees. On Ulmaceae; Ulmus.
Larvae. The larvae mining in leaves; in the under-side. Found in July, or September to November. The larva pupating in a morphologically distinct cocoon (Watkinson), or not constructing a definite cocoon (Bradley et al.).
Pupa. The pupal cremaster with two pairs of hooked processes; two pairs of cremastal processes more or less equal in length (small); cremastal processes relatively short and basally broad.
Adults. Face whitish. Head brown. Thorax cinnamon brown; not shining-metallic. Wing-span 7–9 mm. Forewings shining golden brownish orange; not clear shining white; without a basal streak; with well defined pale strigulae (shading from whitish to brown and, narrowly terminating in black). Costal strigulae 4. Dorsal strigulae 3, or 4. Forewings with the first costal strigula not forming an acute angle with a dorsal one; with two transverse pale fasciae, or with three transverse pale fasciae (the first two pairs of strigulae being coalesced and indistinguishable as entities, the third pair constituting a markedly angled fascia that tends to be interrupted). Forewings with conspicuous dark apical marking (cf. P. trifasciella?). Hindwing cilia fuscous.
The left and right male genital valvae similar in size and form (broadly asymmetrically ovate, narrowing to their shortly spine-tipped apices). The left male genital valva pointed, briefly tipped by a straight spine, or 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 (with a peaked flange at the orifice).
Adults abroad May and August.
Illustrations. • Phyllonorycter tristrigella: Jacobs (1945). • Phyllonorycter tristrigella: Ian Kimber (2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • Phyllonorycter tristrigella, mine in Elm: Ian Kimber (2018), UKmoths https://ukmoths.org.uk/. • Phyllonorycter species on Elm. 1, Phyllonorycter schreberella; 2, P. tristrigella. • Phyllonorycter tristrigella (specimen): photo. Phyllonorycter tristrigella. 1935, Surbiton, Surrey, G.H. Heath. • Phyllonorycter tristrigella, 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’.
