Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Species Lyonetia prunifoliella - Hodges#0472

Nemapogon? - Lyonetia prunifoliella Seattle leaf miner on Betula SW1 2016 1 - Lyonetia prunifoliella Seattle leaf miner on Betula SW1 2016 2 - Lyonetia prunifoliella Seattle leaf miner on Betula SW1 2016 3 - Lyonetia prunifoliella Seattle leaf miner on Betula SW1 2016 4 - Lyonetia prunifoliella Lyonetia prunifoliella ? - Lyonetia prunifoliella Lyonetia prunifoliella ? - Lyonetia prunifoliella small moth - Lyonetia prunifoliella
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Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
Superfamily Yponomeutoidea (Ermine Moths and kin)
Family Lyonetiidae (Lyonet Moths)
Subfamily Lyonetiinae
Genus Lyonetia
Species prunifoliella (Lyonetia prunifoliella - Hodges#0472)
Hodges Number
0472
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Lyonetia prunifoliella Hübner, 1796
Phylogenetic sequence #014050
Size
WS ≈ 9-10mm (a)
Range
Moth Photographers Group – distribution & flight-period chart for North America
Season
Adults are on wing in September, and overwinter, appearing again in the spring. (a)
Food
Larvae are known to be blotch leafminers of apple (Malus domestica) (1)
The larvae are also known to feed on quince, japonica, mountain ash and European white birch (Betula pendula), an invasive in some states in USA and in parts of Canada. They mine the leaves of their host plant, depositing their eggs in the underside of a leaf. Around the oviposition site a cavity develops, that in the end often leaves a hole in the leaf. Then, the mine becomes a narrow, hardly widening, winding corridor, largely filled with a broad reddish-brown frass line. The corridor then widens into a wide, full depth blotch, often against the leaf margin. The larva may leave its mine and start a new one, sometimes on a different leaf. (a)
Life Cycle
Time from egg to adult is ~34 days, under field conditions in August and September, in Jefferson County, West Virginia. Adult males and females live ~8 days (1)
Internet References
Moth Photographers Group – images of pinned adults
BOLD Systems - images of pinned DNA supported specimens
Wikipedia - general description, including list of synonyms
Works Cited
1.Taxonomy, Morphology, and Biology of Lyonetia prunifoliella(Lepidoptera: Lyonetiidae), a Leafminer of Apple
Schmitt, J.S, Brown, M. W. and Davis, D. R. 1996. Entomological Society of America, Volume 89, Issue 3, pp. 334-345.