Genus Phyllonorycter

Eighty-one described species are known from America north of Mexico.

Forewing lengths from 2.5-4.5 mm.(1)

Adult - tiny moths with slender forewings that are held against the body at rest and taper to a rounded point; ground color of forewing orangish in many species but ranges from white through yellow and reddish to brown; often patterned with a thin white basal streak and several white wedges along costa and inner margin that point inward to middle of wing; hindwing reduced to a sharp lance-like midrib from which projects a wide fringe of hair-like scales (see wing illustrations of 49 European species)

Larva - tiny, grub-like, usually whitish or yellow with no markings.

Ova - generally eggs are flat, approximately 0.3 mm in length, 0.2 mm in width, and are lightly cemented to the lower leaf surface.(2)

Much of North America and Eurasia.

Various trees and shrubs.

Adults may be present from March to November; individual species often have reduced flight seasons.

Larvae mine the leaves of a wide variety of trees and shrubs but individual species are usually host-specific.

All species' larvae are believed to possess three early sap-feeding and two later tissue-feeding instars. Sap-feeding instars initiate a slender, serpentine to wedgeshaped, subepidermal tract on the underside of the leaf. The succeeding two instars continue feed in the spongy parenchyma, which, by the third instar, is enlarged to form a blotch (2). Usually two or three generations per year.

Braun, A. F. 1908. Revision of the North American species of the genus Lithocolletis Hübner. Trans. American Ent. Soc. 34(4): 269-357

adult illustration of "typical" Phyllonorycter species (U. of Kentucky)

adult pinned images and host/damage images by microleps.org