Phyllocnistis asiatica

A tiny, pale coloured moth with a wingspan of about 7mm. Adults of This species can only be confirmed by dissection of the female genitalia (males cannot be identified by dissection).

This species is part a complex including Phyllocnistis saligna that is not yet fully resolved.

Adult

Leafmine

The host should be identified where known; where mines are thought to be on Purple Willow the host must be explicitly confirmed and tenanted mines reared to adult for dissection. Photos/details should confirm the morphology of the mine (upper/lower or both surfaces, mine into petiole and stem or just in leaf, mine enters second leaf?). Early stage mines may be inconclusive.

Where smooth-leaved willows are present.

Adult moths are at large in two generations, in July and from September through to April. The overwintering adults are sometimes found in thatch or haystacks. Larval mines are best looked for in June, or in August/September.

The larva mines the leaves of various smooth-leaved Willows, causing a thin silvery mine like a snail-trail in the upper epidermis of the leaf, and contuning down the twig to mine another leaf. Pupation is under a leaf-fold at the edge of a leaf. 

Status in Britain is uncerain at present due to identification of the various species within the complex. Accepted as a distinct species during 2018, and was first identified in the UK from moths found at Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire.

It is possible that Phyllocnistis asiatica is the most frequent member of the species complex in our area.