''Acrocercops aellomacha'' is a
moth
Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...
of the family
Gracillariidae
Gracillariidae is an important family of insects in the order Lepidoptera and the principal family of leaf miners that includes several economic, horticultural or recently invasive pest species such as the horse-chestnut leaf miner, ''Cameraria ...
, known from
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
.
In 2019 Robert Hoare proposed that this species be provisionally assigned to the genus ''
Eumetriochroa''.
However as this proposal needs further investigation this species is also currently known as ''Eumetriochroa'' (
s.l.
SL may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* SL (rapper), a rapper from London
* ''Second Life'', a multi-user 3D virtual world
* Sensei's Library, an Internet site dedicated to the game of Go
* Subdominant leittonwechselklänge
* Leica SL, a mirror ...
) ''aellomacha''.
The
wingspan
The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...
is 7–9 mm.
The host plant for the species is ''
Pseudopanax arboreus
''Pseudopanax arboreus'' or five finger (Māori: ''puahou'' or ''whauwhaupaku''), is a New Zealand native tree belonging to the family Araliaceae. It is one of New Zealand's more common native trees, being found widely in bush, scrub and garden ...
.''
They
mine
Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to:
Extraction or digging
* Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging
*Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine
Grammar
*Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun
...
the leaves of their host plant. The larva, on hatching, at once mines into the leaf through the shell of the egg, and as a general rule takes several spiral turns before mining in any definite direction. The mine throughout is a very gradually widening gallery, never becoming blotched, and rarely do portions cross each other except in the smaller leaves. Its direction invariably takes it along both sides of the midrib, this obstacle being crossed in its upper and thinner part. From these long straight portions a varying number of blind arms or branches of varying lengths, mostly straight but sometimes slightly curved, sprout out into the leaf. As a rule the greater number will be confined to one half of the leaf. These blind branches sometimes follow the course of the veins of the leaf, but most often do not, generally treating these as no obstacle. They do not often reach as far as the outer margin of the leaf, but may do so, and may follow it a short distance. These branches are all more or less parallel to one another, and rarely cross. The mine is found only in the younger leaves, and is pale green in colour, the tips of the branches often being white, showing where the larva came close against the upper cuticle. Old mines become white, but otherwise do not discolour the leaf. The
frass
Frass refers loosely to the more or less solid excreta of insects, and to certain other related matter.
Definition and etymology
''Frass'' is an informal term and accordingly it is variously used and variously defined. It is derived from the ...
is very finely granular.
References
External links
The Leaf Mining Insects of New Zealand
aellomacha
Moths of New Zealand
Moths described in 1880
Taxa named by Edward Meyrick
Endemic fauna of New Zealand
Endemic moths of New Zealand
{{Acrocercops-stub