Seq # 170210010

Psychoides verhuella Bruand, 1853 Species

Last modified: March 21, 2024, 11:28 a.m.


In the past only known from a record in 1862 near Dinant (NA), but in 2009 found again in the same province. By searching for mining lepidoptera, the species is already found in several more provinces, most of them located in the south of the country.


Details

Classification
Family: Tineidae > Subfamily: Teichobiinae > Genus: Psychoides > Species: Psychoides verhuella
Vernacular names
Tongvarenvretertje (NL)
Synonyms
Psychoides verhuellella (Stainton, 1854)
First mention in Belgium
Fologne E. 1862a. Notes d'une excursion à Fondeleffe, près de Dinant. — Annales de la Société entomologique belge 6: 23–25. On page 23.
Status

Native


Distribution


Imago

Wingspan 8–12 mm. Forewings grey brown with characteristic strong blue or purple reflections and with strongly rounded wing tips.

Museum specimens

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Specimens in nature

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Caterpillar

The yellow-white colored larvae mines from autumn till May.


Mine

Young caterpillars make a small full depth corridor or blotch mine, where they concentrate the blackish frass. Later they live outside the mine on the leaves in a small spun case covered with the produced frass.
See also bladmineerders.be


Cocoon/pupa


Bionomics

The eggs are deposited on the green leaves, often near a grain.
Pupation takes places in the larval case, which is often fixed against a midrib of a leaf.
Adults are active during daylight, especially in early morning and in late afternoon. They stay in the neighbourhood of the food plant, where they rest usually inconspicuously on the underside of the leaves of the host plant.

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Flight periods

The adults fly in one generation a year during June and July.


Observed on

Host plant (species):
Phyllitis scolopendrium
Host plant (genera):
Asplenium and Ceterach

The larva mines mature ferns, especially on Asplenium scolopendrium, but also found on other Asplenium species and on Ceterach officinarium.

No pictures yet!