Coptodisca lucifluella (Clemens, 1860)

mine

Oviposition, by way of an ovipositor, at the underside of a leaf. From here a rather small full depth blotch develops with a dark central accumulation of frass. The full grown larva makes an oval excision a the margin of the blotch, and thus sandwiched drops to the ground for pupation.

hostplants

Betulaceae, Juglandaceae, narrowly polyphagous

Juglans nigra, regia.

In the United States on several Carya spec.

phenology

Three generations per year in Italy. The species hibernates as mature larva.

BENELUX

Not known from the Benelux countries (Fauna Europaea, 2012).

distribution within Europe

North American species, that was found for the first time in Europe (Italy), in 2010; there it is now a hazardous invasive.

synonyms

when the species turned up in Italy it was first provisionally identified as C. juglandiella (Chambers, 1874). Only in the paper by Bernardo ao (2015a) the correct identification was given.

references

Bernardo, van Nieukerken, Sasso ao (2015a), Bernardo, Sasso, Gebiola & Viggiani (2011a).