Kingdom Animalia Class Insecta Family Gracillariidae Scientific name Micrurapteryx gradatella | Phylum Arthropoda Order Lepidoptera Genus Micrurapteryx Rank Species | |
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Similar Caloptilia populetorum, Caloptilia cuculipennella, Caloptilia hemidactylella, Phyllocnistis labyrinthella, Caloptilia elongella | ||
Micrurapteryx gradatella is a moth of the Gracillariidae family. It is found from Fennoscandia to the Iberian Peninsula, the Alps and Romania and from Germany to central Russia, as well as in Tajikistan, the Urals, Siberia, and the Russian Far East.
The wingspan is 9.5–11.5 mm. The forewings are dark brown in ground colour with white markings and the costal margin with five white strigulae, the first three almost parallel, oblique and bent outwards and the first costal strigula with the basal half parallel to the costa, then oblique and fragmented. The second often obsolescent and the fourth and fifth semicircular, often both touching the opposite margin. The dorsal margin is white in the basal two-thirds, with two or three white projections, the more distal one almost touching the first costal strigula and the apical spot black, not quite touching the fifth strigula. The hindwings are grey ochreous.
The larvae feed on Lathyrus linifolius, Lathyrus tuberosus and Vicia sepium. They mine the leaves of their host plant. The mine consists of an upper surface, flat blotch. Most frass is ejected from the mine. Pupation takes place outside of the mine.