Leaf-miner: A tortuous lower epidermal mine with a central brownish frass-line.
The larva then mines into the petiole and subsequently into a second
leaf, normally opposite, where it creates another similar epidermal
mine (British
leafminers).
Very
long, purely epidermal, corridor, either upper- or lower-surface.
The mines are restricted to the terminal leaves of young shoots.
The mine passes from one leaf to the other by way of the shoot epidermis.
Frass in a broad fuzzy central line. The corridor ends upon a leaf
margin, where pupation takes place under a folded part of the margin,
not in an evident cocoon (Bladmineerders van Europa).
The
mine is also illustrated in UKMoths.
Larva: The larvae of moths have a head capsule and chewing mouthparts with opposable mandibles (see video of a gracillarid larva feeding), six thoracic legs and abdominal legs (see examples).
The larva is illustrated in British
leafminers.
Pupa: The pupae of moths have visible head appendages, wings and legs which lie in sheaths (see examples).
Under a membrane on the margin of leaf (British
leafminers). The pupa is illustrated in Bladmineerders van Europa.
Adult:
The adult is illustrated in UKMoths by Rob Edmunds.
The species is included in mothdissection.co.uk.
Hosts in Great Britain and Ireland:
Hosts
elsewhere:
Time
of year - larvae: June, August -September (British
leafminers).
Time
of year - adults: Two generations, in July and from September
through to April. The overwintering adults are sometimes found in
thatch or haystacks (UKMoths).
Distribution
in Great Britain and Ireland: This rather local species is
distributed in the south and south-east of England, and is generally
uncommon (UKMoths)
including Cambridgeshire, Dorset, East Norfolk, East Suffolk,
Hertfordshire, North Hampshire, Shropshire, Stafford, West Gloucestershire, West Norfolk and West Suffolk (NBN
Atlas).
See also British
leafminers distribution map. Recently recorded from Dorset from mines on Salix by Jenny Seawright (Facebook Group). The first record since 1891 for this county.
Distribution
elsewhere: Widespread in continental Europe including Austria,
Belgium, Corsica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Danish mainland, Estonia,
French mainland, Germany, Hungary, Italian mainland, Latvia, Lithuania,
Macedonia, Poland, Portuguese mainland, Romania, Russia - Central,
East, Northwest and South, Sardinia, Sicily, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland,
The Netherlands and Ukraine (Fauna Europaea).
NBN Atlas links to known host species:
British and Irish Parasitoids in Britain and elsewhere:
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