Diagnosis. Although frequently slightly paler and greener, the externals of lonicerarum appear to be almost inseparable from those of S. tiliae; also S. anomalella is very similar but usually slightly larger and with more prominent brownish violet forewing apex and, in the male, with a patch of dark scales at the base of the hindwing. The genitalia of lonicerarum differ from other similarly coloured species in having aedeagus with numerous spines of varying sizes and shapes and bursa distinctly divided into corpus and accessory sac, without spines or reticulate field.
Male. Wingspan: 4-5 mm. Head: frontal tuft yellowish brown, vertex darker, grey-brown to black; collar and scape yellowish white; antenna half length of forewing. Thorax and forewing: greenish bronze, faintly shining; distal part of wing shading into purplish grey brown; terminal cilia grey brown with paler tips. Hindwing: grey, cilia similar. Abdomen: fuscous.
Female. Similar to male. Male genitalia. Vinculum with uniformly concave anterior emargination. Uncus with two short, triangular projections, base broad. Gnathos with heavy anterior processes and relatively short, close set horns. Valva with short inward curved distal process; inner lobe posteriorly rounded and slightly constricted at mid length. Transtilla with long transverse bar and short but distinct sublateral processes. Aedeagus wide, slightly longer than genital capsule; vesica with numerous cornuti varying in size and shape from very small, leaf-shaped at base to relatively large, sharply pointed near tip of aedeagus.
Female genitalia. Corpus bursae small, with few and indistinct pectinations. Accessory sac well sclerotized and folded, globular to egg shaped. Ductus spermathecae short, 4 to 5 convolutions anteriorly. Apophyses equally long and slender.
Host plant: Monophagous on Lonicera xylosteum. Egg: on upper or underside of the leaf but seems to be more frequent on the underside. Records from other Lonicera species are mistakes. Larva: yellow. Mine : long and very narrow, at first usually follows leaf margin, later the gallery frequently doubles back once or twice but sometimes it is more irregular. Frass throughout as very thin central line. Cocoon: pale brown.
Absent from Denmark and Norway; known from a few localities in E. Sweden: Sm., Sdm., Upl. and Gtl.; SW. Finland: A1, Ab and Ta. - USSR (Estonia), S. and E. Germany, Austria, Switzerland, E. France and N. Italy. Seems to be absent from Western Europe. All records from the Netherlands are misidentifications.
Voltinism: probably univoltine; mines from mid-September to early October. The moths appear in June.
Description based on Johansson and Nielsen (1990)