Cameraria gaultheriella (Walsingham, 1889)
Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae
Gaultheria shallon, Oldenzaal (intercepted introduction) © Steven IJland
Gaultheria shallon, Leiden (intercepted introduction), mine, lighted from behind, with larva; © Erik van Nieukerken
detail
Gaultheria shallon, Amersfoort (intercepted introduction) © Willem Oosterhof: clearly a living, healthy larva (December, 2015)
mine
Short gallery, quickly but gradually widening into a large conspicuous blotch. Frass concentrated in a dark cloud in the central part of the mine.
hostplants
Ericaceae, monophagous
Gaultheria shallon.
notes
In the UK (Robert Homan, Dave Wilton) and the Netherlands (Erik van Nieukerken, and Steven Ijland, respectively) larvae have been found mining ornamental green in a floral arrangement. Arguably the plant material had been flown in from North America. Because the hostplant is grown as semi-wild ground cover in both Britain and the Netherlands, and is fully hardy, locally already has escaped into the wild, the possibility exists that the moth will become established in NW Europe.
references
Wilton (2009a).
22/12/2015