Parornix torquillella

Parornix torquillella
Parornix torquillella
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Gracillariidae
Genus: Parornix
Species: P. torquillella
Binomial name
Parornix torquillella
(Zeller, 1850)[1]
Synonyms
  • Ornix torquillella Zeller, 1850
  • Deltaornix torquillella

Parornix torquillella is a moth of the Gracillariidae family. It is known from all of Europe, except Spain and parts of the Balkan Peninsula.

Sloe leaf with mine of a young larva (3b); and sloe leaves screwed up by adult larvae (3b*)
Larva

The wingspan is 9-13 mm.[2]

The larvae feed on Prunus cerasus, Prunus domestica, Prunus insititia, Prunus maritima and Prunus spinosa. They mine the leaves of their host plant. The mine starts as a lower-surface epidermal gallery that widens into a blotch. In the end, it becomes a small, only weakly inflated tentiform mine. The lower epidermis is whitish, unfolded, and rather transparent. The leaf tissue is eaten up to the upper epidermis. The frass is deposited in a corner of the mine. In the end, the larva leaves the mine and lives freely under a leaf tip or margin that has been folded downwards, or in a leaf that is rolled into a pod.[3]

Referenced

  1. ^ Fauna Europaea
  2. ^ microlepidoptera.nl
  3. ^ bladmineerders.nl
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