Parornix fagivora

Parornix fagivora
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Infraorder:	Heteroneura
Family:	Gracillariidae
Genus:	Parornix
Species:	P. fagivora
Binomial name
Parornix fagivora (Frey, 1861)[1]
Synonyms
Ornix fagivora Frey, 1861

Parornix fagivora is a moth of the family Gracillariidae. It is found from Sweden to the Pyrenees, Italy and Albania and from Great Britain to southern Russia.

A piece of beech leaf with its edge turned down by the adult larva

Damage

Larva

The wingspan is 11–14 mm.^[2]

The larvae feed on Fagus sylvatica, including subspecies Fagus sylvatica orientalis. They mine the leaves of their host plant. The mine starts as a small lower-surface epidermal corridor with reddish brown frass. Later, it becomes a small rectangular full depth blotch with black frass. The larva deposits only little silk in the mine, that remains practically flat. In the end, the larva leaves the mine and continues living freely under a folded leaf margin or leaf tip.^[3]

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