Diagnosis. A. staticis is recognised by the uniform grey brown colour, and absence of any special scales. It slightly resembles Trifurcula species, but the lack of special scales separates the males easily. The male genitalia differ from other species in this group by the medially broadened valva, blunt uncus and bilobed posterior process of the vinculum. The female genitalia are similar to other species in this group but differ by the non hairy abdominal tip with just a few setae only.
Description. Male. Forewing length 1.5–2.3 mm; wingspan 4.3–4.7 mm. Head: frontal tuft and collar yellowish orange; scape yellowish white mixed with brown scales, flagellum grey brown. Antenna with 38–40 segments. Thorax and forewing uniformly grey brown; cilia line indistinct, cilia grey. Hindwing and underside of both wings with same colour as forewing. Hindwing with costal bristles. Abdomen grey.
Female. Forewing length 1.9–2.3 mm, wingspan 4.0–5.0 mm. Antenna with 34–36 segments.
Male genitalia. Measurements: see Table 3. Vinculum rounded ventral plate narrow, with bilobed ventral, posterior process; lateral arms expanded ventrally. Tegumen rounded, with few setae dorsally, Uncus ribbon-like, without central element, with prominent seta on either half. Gnathos with long spatulate central element. Valva widest in middle, inner margin forming approximately triangular lobe; tip rounded with many spine like setae dorsally; transtilla with curved transverse bar and long sublateral processes. Aedeagus widest at tip, with two pairs of carinae: ventral carina bifurcate, pointed; lateral carina slightly curved dorsad. Vesica without any cornuti.
Female genitalia. T8 narrow, indistinct, with few small setae and scales. T9 with two groups of 10–14 setae. Vestibulum and bursa flimsy, without sclerotisations, bursa hardly reaching beyond segment 7. Ductus spermathecae with 2–2½ narrow convolutions.
Larva not examined.
Hostplant: Limonium pectinatum (=Statice pectinata), growing on rocky shores.
Egg on leaf underside. Leafmine a gallery throughout, initially leaving parenchyma layers on both sides of leaves intact, appearing green, filled with frass; later a full-depth mine with narrow broken frass; mine contorted, usually following a curved zigzag track, with each turn touching previous turn.
Macaronesia: Canary Islands, only known from Tenerife. This species may be under threat, since many of the localities for its hostplant suffer from building activities for tourism. However, it is also possible that A. staticis may still be found along other coasts, such as other Canary Islands or that of Morocco.
This taxonomic description is based on Van Nieukerken (2007).