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Species
Gracillariidae
IUCN
NCBI
EOL Text
Texture:
smooth
Orientation:
flat
Egg mass pattern:
Eggs usually deposited singly on epidermis of host plant; rarely laid in a short transverse row of 4-8 contiguous eggs.
Description of egg morphology:
Usually oval to elliptical, partially flattened underneath and slightly convex above with nearly smooth to finely sculptured chorion, sometimes with upper and lower halves different in texture; less than 0.5 mm in length. Micropyle area finely reticulated, often reduced in size.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Leptree.net, Don Davis, LepTree |
Source | http://www.leptree.net/lep_taxon_page?id=11527&scientificName=Gracillariidae |
Secondary setae:
absent
Body setae on verrucae:
absent
Body setae on chalazae:
absent
Body setae on scoli:
absent
Larval body description:
Body usually not exceeding 10 mm in length, variable in color depending upon species and instar, from white to green, with some species becoming bright red prior to pupation, with or without darkly pigmented head and sclerotized plates.
Spinneret:
present
Thoracic glands:
absent
Thoracic legs:
present, absent
Larval Prothoracic L-group setae:
bisetose
Abdominal glands:
absent
Abdominal prolegs:
present, absent
Proleg configuration:
normal, odd
Proleg size:
short
Crochets:
uniserial, multiserial, arranged in circle
Anal comb on A10:
absent
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Leptree.net, Don Davis, LepTree |
Source | http://www.leptree.net/lep_taxon_page?id=11527&scientificName=Gracillariidae |
Pupa type:
adecticous
Pupa description:
Head usually with a serrated or acute frontal process (cocoon cutter) from vertex, or smoothly rounded. Antennae extending to abdominal segment 6 (A6) to well beyond A10. Wings to A5-6. Tergal spines variably developed, usually small to minute in multiple, irregular rows or dense concentrations on A2 or 3-7 or 8; Phyllocnistis often with a few pairs of large tergal hooks on A2-7. A4-7 moveable in male, A4-6 in female (Mosher 1916). Cremaster highly variable, usually present as small paired spines, often with recurved apices. An accessory cremaster sometimes variably developed on sternum 7.
Pupal tergal spines:
present
Spines as modified cremaster:
present, absent
Cremaster:
present
Cocoon:
present
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Leptree.net, Don Davis, LepTree |
Source | http://www.leptree.net/lep_taxon_page?id=11527&scientificName=Gracillariidae |
Reproductive system:
Ditrysian
Oviscapt (ovipositor):
non-piercing
Female genitalia description:
Oviscapt short, with usually 2 pairs of moderately short, rarely elongate apophyses; anterior apophyses sometimes reduced or absent. Ostium on S8 or at caudal margin; sterigma sometimes well sclerotized and variously modified. Ductus bursae usually elongate, slender, either membranous or partially sclerotized, expanding anteriorly into membranous corpus bursae; signa usually of 1-2 pairs, or sometimes absent.
Female corethrogyne:
absent
Female pregenital sexual scales:
absent
Female accessory glands:
one pair
Female oviduct opening:
below anus
Female bursa ostium opening:
on venter 8
Female anterior apophyses originating:
originating from T8
Male coremata:
present
Male pregenital sexual scales:
present, absent
Male genitalia description:
Uncus absent. Tegumen a relatively elongate, mostly membranous dorsal hood. Vinculum U- to Y - shaped, with often a short, rarely elongate saccus. Subscaphium frequently distinct, variably sclerotized. Gnathos absent. Transtilla present or absent. Valvae usually elongate and simple, rarely asymmetrical, sometimes lobed, spined, or with 1-2 pairs of pectinifers. Anellus usually membranous. Juxta absent. Aedoeagus usually elongate and slender; cornuti present or absent. Male genitalia with 4 pairs of muscles, M 1 absent (Kuznetsov and Stekol nikov, 1987).
Sternum 5:
without fenestra
Sternum 5 gland:
absent
Adult abdomen description:
Sternum 2 long and narrow, with long slender sternal apodemes continuing caudad as sternal rods ca. 0.8 the length of sternite. Segment 8 and sometimes 7 of male frequently with paired coremata; Sternum 8 of female often enlarged, particularly in Lithocolletinae; Tergum 8 sometimes with median sclerotization; corethrogyne absent.
Male has:
phallotheca and aedeagus (phallus)
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Leptree.net, Don Davis, LepTree |
Source | http://www.leptree.net/lep_taxon_page?id=11527&scientificName=Gracillariidae |
Scale tufts:
absent
Epiphysis:
present
Adult thorax description:
Metafurca with anteromedial process elongate, relatively slender; furcal apophyses free, short to moderately long and downcurved, arising well caudad near secondary arms.
Forelegs:
normal
Leg description:
Legs with tibial spur pattern usually 0-2-4; epiphysis rarely absent.
Forewing length from base of forewing to the apex (mm):
from 2 to 10
Wing venation:
heteroneurous
Forewing anal vein notation:
A
Forewing basal loop:
absent
Forewing pterostigma:
absent
Forewing chorda:
present, absent
Forewing upper surface with microtrichia:
absent
Hindwing anal vein notation:
1A + 2A
Hindwing cell vein:
unforked
Hindwing pterostigma:
absent
Wing coupling:
with frenulum
Wing scales:
hollow
Forewing description:
Forewings slender; W/L ratio 0.9-0.25; venation variable with R/Rs 3- to 5-branched; Rs4 usually to costa, rarely to apex; Ml- to 3-branched; Cu 1 sometimes absent; discal cell elongate, extending 0.7-0.8 the length of forewing; accessory cell vestigial to absent; base of M vestigial to absent; intercalary cell absent; 1 A + 2 A usually present, sometimes vestigial, occasionally with minute basal fork; male retinaculum usually formed of curved scales from underneath slightly swollen base of Sc;
Hindwing description:
Hindwing lanceolate; index 0.1-0.2; female frenulum usually with 2 frenular setae, rarely 1; stout, composite pseudofrenular setae sometimes arising near apex of Sc in both sexes (Davis 1991); venation reduced, from 7 to 4 veins; discal cell often open.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Leptree.net, Don Davis, LepTree |
Source | http://www.leptree.net/lep_taxon_page?id=11527&scientificName=Gracillariidae |
Counter-tympanum:
absent
Abdomen tympanum:
absent
Thorax tympanum:
absent
Palp tympanum:
absent
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Leptree.net, Don Davis, LepTree |
Source | http://www.leptree.net/lep_taxon_page?id=11527&scientificName=Gracillariidae |
Ocelli:
absent
Eyes:
smooth
Labial palpus:
porrect, upcurved
Labial palpus modification:
Labial palpi 3-segmented, usually upturned, to straight and drooping; segment 2 sometimes with ventral scale tuft.
Maxillary palpus:
present, minute
Proboscis:
present
Proboscis texture:
naked
Proboscis description:
Haustellum usually elongate, 1-2X length of labial palpi.
Mandibles:
absent
Head vertex scaling:
very rough, very smooth
Female antennae:
filiform
Male antennae:
filiform
Antennal sensillum:
Antennal sensillum present
Sensillum vesiculocladum:
absent
Asciod sensilla:
absent
General antennae description:
Antennae 0.8-1.75 the length of forewing; scape usually smooth, with or without pecten; flagellum filiform, with a single row of slender scales completely encircling each segment.
Adult head description:
Head vestiture variable, usually smooth (in Gracillariinae) with moderately broad scales from vertex directed forward and down over frons; similar in Lithocolletinae except with tufts of erect filiform and sometimes broader scales arising from occiput caudad to vertex. Eyes moderately large; interocular index 0.9-1.0.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Leptree.net, Don Davis, LepTree |
Source | http://www.leptree.net/lep_taxon_page?id=11527&scientificName=Gracillariidae |
Apomorphies:
Hypermetamorphic larval development (Kumata 1978).. Early instar larvae specialized for sapfeeding in plant tissue; later instar(s) usually generalized tissue feeders, or sometimes nonfeeding silk spinning larvae in final instar.. Tissue feeding larval instars usually with prolegs absent on abdominal segment 6.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Leptree.net, Don Davis, LepTree |
Source | http://www.leptree.net/lep_taxon_page?id=11527&scientificName=Gracillariidae |
Gracilariidae (Gracilariid sp.) preys on:
Atriplex canescens
Atriplex polycarpa
Based on studies in:
USA: California, Southern California (Galls, Plant substrate)
This list may not be complete but is based on published studies.
- B. A. Hawkins and R. D. Goeden, 1984. Organization of a parasitoid community associated with a complex of galls on Atriplex spp. in southern California. Ecol. Entomol. 9:271-292, from p. 274.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Cynthia Sims Parr, Joel Sachs, SPIRE |
Source | http://spire.umbc.edu/fwc/ |
Pupa life history description:
Pupation usually in a small, whitish silken cocoon either outside the mine of the host plant (most Gracillarinae) or within the mine (most Lithocolletinae and all Phyllocnistinae).
Larval food habits description:
Most species of Gracillariidae are leafminers, others mine the subepidermal layers of new growth stems and fruits or bore inside stems and galls (Davis 1991). Early sap-feeding instars with slashing mandibles typically feed in a horizontal plane, initiating slender, subepidermal serpentine mines while ingesting relatively little solid tissue. In some genera (e. g. Phyllonorycter) the sap-feeding instars instead initiate a blotch mine by devouring mostly spongy parenchymal cells (Watson 1956). Tissue-feeding instars possess typical chewing mandibles that enable these larvae to feed deeper into the host, usually ingesting the remainder of the spongy parenchyma and most of the palisade cells within the blotch. Later tissue-feeding instars of the most primitive genera (Gracillariinae) tend to exit the mine and feed externally, often in a rolled-over leaf.
Life history larvae:
Larval Gracillariidae undergo hypermetamorphic development (Kumata 1978; Davis 1987) with at least 2 distinct forms and habits: (1) an early, usually sap-feeding (Tragardh 1913) or flattened (Chambers 1877) form, often comprising the first 2-5 instars, with a depressed, apodal body with specialized, prognathous mouthparts and rudimentary spinneret, and (2) a later hypognathous, tissue-feeding or cylindrical form, possessing a more generalized, eruciform body with unspecialized, chewing mouthparts and legs; or a variously modified nonfeeding spinning form, with either a depressed or cylindrical body, mandibles and legs reduced or absent, but with a functional spinneret. An additional nonfeeding, transitional stage is also interposed between the final sap-feeding and single spinning instars of Chrysaster, Dendrorycter, and Marmara (De Gryse 1916; Kumata 1978). Moreover, in the latter two genera the quiescent instar exists in a pharate condition within the cuticle of the last sap-feeding instar. Later instar larvae of Gracillariidae are further characterized by 2 prespiracular (L) setae on T1 and crochets, if present, on A3-5 and 10 and almost always absent on A6 (present on A3-6 in Artifodina, Prophyllocnistis, and on A2-6 in Metriochroa psychotriella, Davis, 1994). Number of in stars varies from 4-11, depending upon genus and sometimes species (Fitzgerald and Simeone 1971).
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Leptree.net, Don Davis, LepTree |
Source | http://www.leptree.net/lep_taxon_page?id=11527&scientificName=Gracillariidae |