Stigmella tityrella

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Stigmella tityrella
Stigmella tityrella01.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nepticulidae
Genus: Stigmella
Species:
S. tityrella
Binomial name
Stigmella tityrella
(Stainton, 1854)
Synonyms
  • Nepticula tityrellaStainton, 1854
  • Nepticula castanellaStainton, 1859
  • Nepticula turicellaHerrich-Schaffer, 1855
  • Nepticula turicensisFrey, 1856

Stigmella tityrella is a species of moth in the family Nepticulidae. It is found in all of Europe west of Russia.

The wingspan is 5–6 mm. The thick erect hairs on the head vertex are ochreous-yellowish. The collar is white. Antennal eyecaps are white. The forewings are shining bronzy-brown with a rather oblique shining golden-silvery fascia beyond middle; apical area beyond this dark bronzy-brown. Hindwings are grey; in male with an expansible pencil of blackish hairs at base of costa. [1] External image [2] [3] [4]


Adults are on wing from April to May and again from July to August. There are two generations per year.

The larvae feed on beech ( Fagus sylvatica ), mining the leaves of their host plant. The mine consists of a corridor that does not widen much and zigzags between two lateral veins in the direction of the leaf margin.

Leaf mine damage caused by larva Stigmella.tityrella4.-.lindsey.jpg
Leaf mine damage caused by larva

References

  1. Meyrick, E., 1895 A Handbook of British Lepidoptera MacMillan, London
  2. lepiforum.de includes images PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  3. Emmet, A. M., 1976. Nepticulidae. — In: J. Heath (ed.). The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland 1: 171—267, pls. 1—7, 11, 12.
  4. Zagulajev, A.K., 1987 Nepticulidae (Stigmellidae); in G.S. Medvedev (ed.): Keys to the insects of the europaean part of the USSR, Vol.IV: Lepidoptera, part 1 (english translation), Oxonian Press Pvt.Ltd., New Dehli, 1987