Parornix torquillella

Parornix torquillella
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Infraorder:	Heteroneura
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 family Gracillariidae. 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 head is pale ochreous mixed with fuscous. Palpi white. Forewings are rather dark fuscous, purplish-tinged, towards dorsum and costa more blackish numerous costal streaks, a spot in disc posteriorly, and two or three dorsal spots white; a black apical dot, strongly white edged anteriorly; cilia with three entire dark fuscous lines. Hind wings are grey. The larva is pale yellow -green; dorsal line dark green or reddish; head pale yellow; segment 2 with four black spots.^[3]

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.^[4]

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