Lithospermum officinale, Belgium, prov. Namur, Vierves-sur-Viroin (identification only tentative) © Stéphane Claerebout

mine

Spencer’s (1963b) description of the mine is rather succinct: “beginning with a narrow channel, then developing into a distinctive blotch, filled centrally with blackish frass; the mine does not occupy the entire leaf.” In the figure he adds the initial corridor follows the leaf margin. Neither larva nor puparium are described.

Robbins (1991a), without mentioning a source, adds that the mine resembles the one pf A. pseudorufipes Nowakowski 1964, and that pupation is outside the mine. A. pseudorufipes is a miner of Myosotis, and in describing that species (Nowakowski, 1964a) some comparisions are made with A. abiens.

hostplants

Boraginaceae, narrowly oligophagous

Aegonychon purpurocaeruleum; Lithospermum officinale.

BENELUX

BE recorded (Scheirs, De Bruyn & von Tschirnhaus, 1999a), contra Fauna Europaea (2007).

NE not recorded (Fauna Europaea, 2007).

LUX not recorded (Fauna Europaea, 2007).

distribution within Europe

Described by Spencer from the UK, Austria, and Bessarabia; the Fauna Europaea (2007) adds Poland and France, and omits Bessarabia.

references

Beiger (1979a), Papp & Černý (2015a), Robbins (1991a), Scheirs, De Bruyn & von Tschirnhaus (1999a), Spencer (1963b, 1972a).

17/01/2016