The leaf and stem mines of British flies and other insects
 

(Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera)

by Brian Pitkin, Willem Ellis, Colin Plant and Rob Edmunds

  

Ectoedemia arcuatella (Herrich-Schäffer, 1855)
[Lepidoptera: Nepticulidae]

Strawberry Pigmy

Nepticula arcuatella Herrich-Schäffer, 1855. Syst. Bearb. Schmett. Europ. 5: 354.
Ectoedemia arcuatella (Herrich-Schäffer, 1855).

Leaf-miner: A gallery with dispersed frass (British leafminers).

Egg at the underside of the leaf. The first part of the mine is a quite narrow and strongly contorted gallery with grey brown frass. This is followed by an elongate blotch (or broad corridor) that frequently overlaps a part of the earlier mine; here the frass lies scattered throughout the blotch. Pupation external (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).

Larva yellowish-white with green gut-line (British leafminers). The larva lies venter-upwards in the mine. Young larvae with a chain of ventral plates. See Gustafsson and van Nieukerken (1990a) for a description of the larva (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 not illustrated in UKMoths (check for update). The species is included in mothdissection.co.uk.

Hosts in Great Britain and Ireland:

Rosaceae        
Fragaria       British leafminers
Fragaria       Pitkin & Plant
Potentilla sterilis Barren Strawberry British Wild Flowers by John Somerville et al. British leafminers
Potentilla sterilis Barren Strawberry British Wild Flowers by John Somerville et al. Pitkin & Plant

Hosts elsewhere:

Rosaceae        
Agrimonia       Hering, 1957
Fragaria       Belgian Lepidoptera
Fragaria moschata Hautbois Strawberry   Bladmineerders van Europa
Fragaria vesca Wild Strawberry British Wild Flowers by John Somerville et al. Belgian Lepidoptera
Fragaria vesca Wild Strawberry British Wild Flowers by John Somerville et al. Bladmineerders van Europa
Fragaria viridis     Bladmineerders van Europa
Potentilla       Belgian Lepidoptera
Potentilla erecta Tormentil British Wild Flowers by John Somerville et al. Bladmineerders van Europa
Potentilla sterilis Barren Strawberry British Wild Flowers by John Somerville et al. Bladmineerders van Europa

Time of year - larvae: August - October (British leafminers).

Time of year - adults: Currently unknown.

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: Britain including Dorset, Durham, Hertfordshire, North Somerset, Shropshire, South Northumberland, Stafford 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, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Danish mainland, Estonia, Finland, French mainland, Germany, Greek mainland, Hungary, Italian mainland, Latvia, Lithuania, Republic of Moldova, Norwegian mainland, Poland, Romania, Russia - Central, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Ukraine and Yugoslavia. Also recorded in the East Palaearctic (Fauna Europaea).

NBN Atlas links to known host species:

Fragaria moschata, Fragaria vesca, Potentilla erecta, Potentilla sterilis

British and Irish Parasitoids in Britain and elsewhere: Currently unknown.

External links: Search the internet:

Belgian Lepidoptera
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Bladmineerders van Europa
British leafminers
Encyclopedia of Life
Fauna Europaea
NBN Atlas
NHM UK Checklist
UKMoths

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 Last updated 23-May-2019  Brian Pitkin Top of page