Food Plant: Lysimachia vulgaris (Yellow Loosestrife)

Mine: September-May

Notes: The larva makes small mines, during September and October, at the edge or tips of the leaves (as shown), which have brownish centres and small galleries leading off. The mines cause the leaf tip to curl (either upwards or downwards) and appear dark brown at the start turning to a lighter brown as they progress towards the leaf interior, ending in a lighter green where the larva is feeding. It looks as if the leaf tip has withered but, unlike such damage, the tip remains flexible due to internal silk produced by the larva. They live in this silken area and feed into the mesophyll and palisade of the leaf from here. Frass is scattered throughout the mine. After hibernation, in May, they mine the stems of young shoots and spin the terminal leaves together. A rare moth of Fenland. Found in wetlands in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk.

National Status: pRDB2

Bradley No: 739

Gelechiid Recording Scheme: link

Data: 29.ix.2013, Meerhout, (Antwerpen), Belgium

Image:© Carina van Steenwinkel

References:
Edmunds R (2023) The autumn stage of Monochroa conspersella (Herrich-Schäffer, 1854) (Lep.: Gelechiidae): a leaf miner of Lysimachia vulgaris (L.). - Entomologist’s Record and Journal of Variation 135: 244-248
Emmet in Emmet AM & Langmaid JR Eds., (2002) The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland Volume 4 (Part 2) Gelechiidae 86
Gregersen K & Karsholt O (2022) The Gelechiidae of North-West Europe 304-306
Hering EM (1957) Bestimmugstabellen der Blattminen von Europa 647, Tafel 45, fig 389
Klimesch J (1958) Beiträge zur Kenntnis der blarrminierenden Insectenlarven der Linzer Gebietes und Oberösterreichs. III Gelechiidae, Acrolepiidae. Naturk. Jb. Stadt Linz 265-269, Text figs 1-16
Meyrick E (1968) A Revised Handbook of British Lepidoptera 609 EW Classey Ltd.a
Parsons M (1995) A review of the scarce and threatened ethmiine, stathmopodine and gelechiid moths of Great Britain UK Nature Conservation 16
Sattler K (1974) On Monochroa ferrea (Frey, 1870) AND M. conspersella (Herrich-Schäffer, 1854) (Lepidoptera:Gelechiidae) Entomologist’s Gazette 25: 277-282