Leucoptera smilactis
Encyclopedia
Leucoptera smilactis is a moth
in the Lyonetiidae
family. It is known from Japan
(Honshu, Kyushu).
The wingspan
is 6-8 mm. Adults are on wing from the end of June and from the beginning to the end of August. Larvae of the autumn generation spin a cocoon at the beginning of November and hibernate. The adults appear in May of the following year. There are three generations per year.
The larvae feed on Smilax china. They mine
the leaves of their host plant. The mine has the form of an orthogenous upper surface blotch mine. It is pale greenish-brown with a central brown patch. Pupation takes place outside of the mine in a shining white cocoon, which can be found on the surface of a leaf or a twig. The spindle-shaped cocoon is covered by a H-shaped silken roof, but the cocoon spun on the twig has no silken roof.
Moth
A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...
in the Lyonetiidae
Lyonetiidae
Lyonetiidae is a family of moths. These are small, slender moths, the wingspan rarely exceeding 1 cm. The very narrow forewings, held folded backwards covering the hindwings and abdomen, often have pointed apices noticeably up- or down-turned. The larvae are leaf miners.The families Bucculatricidae...
family. It is known from Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
(Honshu, Kyushu).
The wingspan
Wingspan
The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...
is 6-8 mm. Adults are on wing from the end of June and from the beginning to the end of August. Larvae of the autumn generation spin a cocoon at the beginning of November and hibernate. The adults appear in May of the following year. There are three generations per year.
The larvae feed on Smilax china. They mine
Leaf miner
Leaf miner is a term used to describe the larvae of many different species of insect which live in and eat the leaf tissue of plants. The vast majority of leaf-mining insects are moths , sawflies and flies , though some beetles and wasps also exhibit this behavior.Like Woodboring beetles, leaf...
the leaves of their host plant. The mine has the form of an orthogenous upper surface blotch mine. It is pale greenish-brown with a central brown patch. Pupation takes place outside of the mine in a shining white cocoon, which can be found on the surface of a leaf or a twig. The spindle-shaped cocoon is covered by a H-shaped silken roof, but the cocoon spun on the twig has no silken roof.