Leaf-miner: The early gallery is filled with frass, later leaving clear
margins (British
leafminers).
Like Stigmella microtheriella the larva feeds on hazel or hornbeam, and its mines are often found
alongside that species in the same leaf. However the mines of S.
floslactella are generally wider, less angular and contain more
scattered frass than those of S. microtheriella (UKMoths).
Oviposition
at the underside of the leaf, in a vein axil. Mine a slender, gradually
widening corridor; the last section is clearly wider than the larva.
In the first section the vaguely delimited frass line almost fills
the corridor. Later the frass lies in irregular arcs and clouds,
filling about one third of the width of the corridor. The trajectory
of the mine is not angular, independent of the leaf venation. Pupation
external, exit slit in the upper epidermis (Bladmineerders van Europa).
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 a dull yellow, head pale brown (British
leafminers).
Pale
greenish to pale yellowish; see also Gustafsson and van Nieukerken
(1990a) for a description. Contary to microtheriella the metanotum has a broad zone of fine spinules (Bladmineerders van Europa).
Pupa: The pupae of moths have visible head appendages, wings and legs which lie in sheaths (see examples).
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 - July, September - October (British
leafminers; UKMoths).
Time
of year - adults: There are two generations, with adults on
the wing in May and August (UKMoths).
Distribution
in Great Britain and Ireland: A widespread and fairly common
species across most of the British Isles (UKMoths)
including Banffshire, Bedfordshire, Breconshire, Buckinghamshire, Caernarvonshire,
Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Denbighshire, Derbyshire, East Kent, East Norfolk, East Ross, East Suffolk, East Sutherland, Glamorgan, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Kincardineshire, Mid-west Yorkshire,
Middlesex, Monmouthshire, North Aberdeenshire, North Devon, North Ebudes,
North Essex, North Hampshire, North Somerset, Radnorshire, Shropshire,
South Aberdeenshire, South Essex, South Hampshire, South Lancashire, South Wiltshire, Stafford, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Gloucestershire,
West Kent, West Lancashire, West Norfolk, West Suffolk, Westerness,
Westmorland and Worcestershire (NBN
Atlas).
See also British
leafminers distribution map.
Also
recorded in the Republic of Ireland (Fauna Europaea and National Biodiversity Data Centre Map).
Distribution
elsewhere: Widespread in continental Europe including Austria,
Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Danish mainland, Estonia,
Finland, French mainland, Germany, Hungary, Italian mainland, Latvia,
Lithuania, Norwegian mainland, Poland, Romania, Russia - Central
and East, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spanish mainland, 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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