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Recent Publications
- The Nepticulidae and Opostegidae (Lepidoptera) of North West Europe
- Introduction to the Nepticulidae
- Stigmella aurella (F.) and Stigmella splendidissimella (H.S.) (Lep., Nepticulidae) - a method of distinguishing mines on Rubus
- The Ando-Patagonian Stigmella magnispinella group (Lepidoptera, Nepticulidae) with description of new species from Ecuador, Peru and Argentina
- Die Lepidopterenfauna von Herkulesbad und Orsova. Eine zoogeographische Studie
- Influences of leaf-mining insects on their host plants: A review
Nepticuloidea
Stigmella ruficapitella (Haworth, 1828) Beirne, 1945
Stigmella ruficapitella
Diagnostic description:Diagnosis. Males easily recognised by combination of black head and the distinct patch of relatively short androconial scales on hindwing: only in basal half and reaching 1/3 into the fringe, the other species with similar androconials (S. atricapitella, suberivora, ilicifoliella, cocciferae) have these scales much longer and extending over most of hindwing. Female resembling other red-headed species with uniform forewings: S. suberivora, ilicifoliella, cocciferae, kasyi, szoecsiella, svenssoni, roborella, eberhardi; it can be distinguished from the most common roborella by the blunt abdomen versus the pointed one in S. roborella; most other red-headed species have more antennal segments (23-27 in S. ruficapitella), except S. szoecsiella and dorsiguttella, there is some overlap with S. svenssoni.
Male genitalia: manica conspicuous, almost twice as wide as aedeagus. Female genitalia: accessory sac an elongated pear-shaped sac, with wrinkled walls, many short spines confined to patch in posterior part, in top inserted on a distinct sclerotization; ductus spermathecae with 5 convolutions.Associations:Hostplants. Quercus cerris (Szöcs 1977), Q. petraea, Q. pubescens (Borkowski 1972), Q. robur. Most abundant on Q. robur and petraea. Records on Castanea (Buhr 1940) require confirmation, such mines may well belong to S. samiatella.
Leafmine. A gallery with frass first in narrow midline, later in a broad band. Egg usually on leaf upperside, but also found on underside. A Dutch sample of 158 specimens, shown to belong to one species by their allozymes, had 78% of eggs on leaf upperside (Cronau & Menken 1990: published under the name samiatella, but here believed to be ruficapitella, see below); all over leaf, but less so against veins. Larva yellow, described by Gustafsson & Van Nieukerken (1990).Distribution:Throughout northern and central Europe, but almost absent in the Mediterranean region with the exception of Mount Olympus in Greece and Trieste. In the North and West one of the commonest species. Recently recorded from Russia (Shmytova 2002). New records from Bosnia and Greece. Highest altitude on Mount Olympus, but without exact altitude known.
Life cycle:Life-history. Bivoltine, larvae June to November, most abundant in October; adults April-June and July-September, one of the earliest flying oak mining species, often just before the opening of leaves.
Citation:This taxonomic description is based on Van Nieukerken (2003).