Diagnosis. Male Ectoedemia suberis is separated from the four following species by the completely white androconial field on the hindwing, surrounding a white hair-pencil, and scales not reaching the dorsal margin of the hindwing. E. caradjai has a basal white streak on the forewing and lacks the androconial field; other similar Ectoedemia (such as haraldi) are usually smaller, have fewer antennal segments and have no hairpencil. Females are distinguished from E. andalusiae, heckfordi and phaeolepis by the hairy abdominal tip, and from hendrikseni by the larger number of antennal segments. Male genitalia differ from E. andalusiae and hendrikseni by the very slight basal bump, which is much more distinct in the other species, whereas this bump is virtually absent in E. phaeolepis and caradjai. See also E. phaeolepis. Aedeagus at 360–400 μm distinctly longer than in E. phaeolepis and andalusiae (less than 350 μm). In female genitalia hard to distinguish from E. andalusiae or E. phaeolepis, apart from slight statistical differences in numbers of setae on anal papillae and number of convolutions in ductus spermathecae (6 in andalusiae, 5.5 in heckfordi, 4.5 in phaeolepis).
Description.
Male. Forewing length 2.72 — 3.08 mm (2.95 ± 0.09, 22), wingspan 6.5 — 6.8 mm. Head: frontal tuft yellowish orange to ferruginous; collar lighter. Antennae long with 49—60 short segments (54.9 ± 3.3, 17). Thorax and forewing brown, irrorate with white; a medial almost straight dull white fascia. Hindwing with white hair-pencil surrounded by white special lamellar scales.
Female. Forewing length 2.8 — 3.24 mm (3.05 ± 0.10, 23), wingspan 6.4 — 7.2 mm. Antennal segments 37 — 43 (39.1 ± 1.5, 18).
Male genitalia. Capsule length. 261— 296 µm (279.5 ± 11.5, 9). Tegumen produced into broadly triangular, rounded pseuduncus. Gnathos with long triangular central element. Valva length 201—227 μm (212.7 ± 9.1, 8), basally broad with inner margin convex, below middle suddenly narrowed and inner margin becoming concave towards tip. Aedeagus 343—394 µm (375 ± 18.0, 8), much longer than capsule, carinae single, pointed, slightly curved outwards.
Female genitalia. T7 with a semicircular patch of 120 — 200 very long, smooth setae. T7 and 8 in addition with about 80 — 100 shorter setae, without scales. Anal papillae with 29 — 37 setae. Vestibulum with vaginal sclerite and a spiculate pouch with hardly visible spines, without pectinations. Corpus bursae almost globular, 550 — 660 µm; covered with minute pectinations; signa similar, 364 — 437 µm (417.4 ± 40.0, 10), 2.3—2.4 X as long as wide. Ductus spermathecae with 4 — 4½ distinct convolutions.
Larva. Dirty green, with conspicuous brown ganglia. Ventral plates absent.
Hostplants: evergreen oaks Quercus ilex L., Q. rotundifolia Lam., Q. suber L. and Q. coccifera L. and possibly on semi-evergreen oak Q. faginea Lam. (vacated mines only) (Van Nieukerken 1985; Nieukerken et al. 2004a; 2006). Egg on leaf-upperside. Mine starts as contorted gallery filled with frass, later widening into large irregular blotch with the frass in basal half or in two lateral lines. Larva feeds only in upper parenchym layers. Mine not separable from the similar mines on evergreen oaks of E. andalusiae, phaeolepis and hendrikseni, but on Q. coccifera, E. andalusiae is more often found than suberis.
Western mediterranean species, known from Iberian peninsula, France, Corsica, Sardinia and North Africa. Not recorded from mainland Italy. Earlier records from Tunisia, based on leafmines only, are confirmed by the record of reared adults below. Given the fact that the closely related E. hendrikseni, E. andalusiae and E. phaeolepis cannot be separated by their mines, the previous records from Algeria on the basis of their leafmines (Van Nieukerken 1985) should be reconsidered and regarded as doubtful, although in the light of distribution data suberis is still the most likely candidate.
Univoltine, with larvae from January (Algarve, Andalusia) to late April (Spanish mountains, France) and adults flying from July to October, but some specimens from Marbella were taken in June.
This taxonomic description is based on Van Nieukerken (1985) and Van Nieukerken et al (2010).