Diagnosis. Males characterised by combination of long spatulate androconial scales and pale head colour, but almost inseparable from ilicifoliella and cocciferae. The very broad genitalia with 'bulging' valvae separate suberivora from both; with some experience this can be seen without dissection; otherwise suberivora has significantly fewer antennal segments than ilicifoliella (30-45), with a small overlap, and S. cocciferae has no androconial scales in distal 1/5 of hindwing.
Females very similar to all other pale-headed species, including some outside this group.
Male genitalia with capsule broader than long, valvae bulging and with field of papillae externally. Female genitalia with ductus spermathecae with ca 6.5 convolutions, ratio bursa /accessory sac 3.5-3.8, larger than in ilicifoliella.
Redescription. Male. Forewing length 2.2-3.3 mm, wingspan 4.8-7.1 mm. Head: frontal tuft from almost white or ochreous to yellowish orange, collar pale grey to dark grey-fuscous, occasionally a few yellowish scales. Scape pale yellow. Antenna slightly darker, 3/5 of forewing length, with 30-45 segments, ratio to forewing length 12-16 segments/mm. Thorax and forewing unicolorous dark bronze brown, at base and on thorax almost bluish black in fresh specimens, a faint purplish lustre at apex; terminal cilia concolorous, underside bronze-brown. Hindwing coarsely scaled, dark grey-brown, dorsum with long dark brown to bluish black androconial scales, extending into fringe, the longest near base, approximately 3/4 of cilia length; along basal half of costa long curved, spatulate bluish-black androconial scales, the longest as long as or longer than the shortest dorsal androconial scales; underside grey brown, cilia dark grey. Abdomen dark grey brown, with conspicuous yellowish to orange anal tufts inserted on well sclerotized plates, and very broad genital capsule, easily visible without dissection.
Female. Forewing length 2.3-3.5 mm. Antenna with 33-40 segments, ratio to forewing length 11-14 segments/mm. As male, but collar yellowish white to pale yellow, hindwing grey, androconial scales absent, abdomen dark grey-brown, without anal tufts.
Male genitalia. Measurements: see table 3. Capsule very wide, wider than long or just as wide as long. Vinculum anteriorly slightly bilobed. Uncus with widely separated horns. Gnathos with widely separated posterior processes, often converging towards tip. Valva with pointed distal process less than 1/3 valva length, pointing inwards, inner margin forming a distinct lobe, ventral outer lobe bulging and covered with field of densely placed minute papillae; sublateral processes very short, or almost absent. Aedeagus with vesica with a more or less curved group of cornuti in basal half; this band comprises about 20-30 large cornuti with serrated bases and many small spinelike cornuti; more distally there is a group of ca 10-12 long needle-shaped cornuti and one or a few larger near phallotrema; manica covering aedeagus almost completely, except anteriormost part, covered with small spines and pectinations.
Female genitalia. T8 with ca 18-23 setae. Bursa length 1170-1606 μm, 3.5-3.8 as long as accessory sac . Bursa distally covered with minute pectinations, difficult to see (observed with Differential Interference Contrast only); accessory sac anteriorly with pectinations only. Ductus spermathecae with 6.5 (n=3) convolutions.
Host plants. Quercus coccifera, Q. ilex, Q. rotundifolia, Q. suber. Leafmine. Egg deposited on leaf upperside. Mine a broad gallery, filled with frass, usually transparent, but in very thick leaves difficult to see. Usually much wider and longer than the gallery mines of Ectoedemia species (E. ilicis (Mendes, 1910), E. haraldi (Soffner, 1942), E. heringella (Mariani, 1939) and E. algeriensis Van Nieukerken, 1985), which differ also by the larvae feeding with venter upwards and showing their ganglia and differently shaped headcapsule. Larva of S. suberivora yellow, and with dorsum upwards as all other species in this group. Cocoon: whitish to pale brown.
Does not occur in the Scandinavian countries. - A SW. Widespread in western Mediterranean: Portugal, Spain, Southern France, along Atlantic coast northwards to France: Bretagne, Italy, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily (new record), Adriatic coast: Slovenia (A. & Z. Laštuvka 1997), Croatia, Bosnia (Skala 1937) and in North Africa in Algeria and Tunisia (new records); introduced and established in southern England. Records of leafmines in Mallorca (J. Klimesch in litt.) probably belong to this species. To be expected in Morocco and Malta. Occurs from sea level up to 1700m in Aurès, Algeria.
Life-history. Larvae have been collected from December to April and in Britain again in July-August, bivoltine, but more generations in Mediterranean possible. Adults have been collected from April to October.
This taxonomic description is based on Van Nieukerken (2003).