Last modified: Nov. 25, 2024, 2:03 p.m.
Only recorded once in the Belgian entomological literature: AN, Postel and Turnhout, August 1861, a large series, leg. L. Becker.
It is very strange that neither such a well-marked and easily recognizable species has never been observed again till 2018, nor that it has never been recorded from the Netherlands, while Postel is on the border between Belgium and the Netherlands, but a second observation became known in HA in June 2018 after more than 150 years of absence. Hitherto a small population is present here.
Native
Forewings with brown ground colour and pure white pattern consisting of basal field, 1 broad central fascia, two semi-circular patches (one at the costa, the other at the inner margin), and finally 2 thin strigae at the costa just before the apex.
The larva lives in a very shallow gallery just under the bark of shoots of several Quercus species, widening at the end into an inconspicuous blotch.
See also gracillariidae.net.
Pupation between leaf litter on the ground.
Adults have only been observed in late June and August in Belgium.
The larva prefers very fresh shoots of Quercus robur, but lives also on Quercus petraea and Quercus pubescens. It has also been observed, but not (yet) in Belgium, on Castanea sativa.