Caloptilia honoratella

Caloptilia honoratella is a small moth. It's general colouration is a deep cream colour with brown ‘inverted V’ and other markings. The larva feeds on Sycamore producing a silvery upper surface leafmine.

Very similar to some other Caloptilia species, especially C. hemidactylella.

Adult Leafmine

Adult: Determination by genitalia examination (gen. det.) required  

Leafmine: If recordeing the silvery upper surface mine on Sycamore a good quality image is required. If the record is for the leaf cones or leaf folds then the moth must be reared and confirmed by gen det.

Areas where Acer species such as Sycamore are present.

The moth is single brooded, occurring from August to May and hibernating as an adult.

The larvae feed on maples such as Sycamore, creating a typical Caloptilia blotch mine between two veins before moving to feed in a rolled cone at a leaf-lobe.  The blotch mine is silvery in colour and usually has a number of diverticula (short projections from the main mine).

First British record taken in Folkestone, East Kent 16th April 2016 since when it has been found in several other counties in the south and east of England.  Previously classed as a rare migrant it is thought that it may now be resident in some areas.

Rare in Leicestershire and Rutland, but possibly becoming more frequent in our aea. The Whetstone record of 3rd October 2022 was the first for VC55.

http://www.leafmines.co.uk/html/Lepidoptera/C.honoratella.htm

https://bladmineerders.nl/parasites/animalia/arthropoda/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/gracillarioidea/gracillariidae/gracillariinae/caloptilia/caloptilia-honoratella/