Macrosaccus robiniella

Phyllonorycter robiniella
	Adult
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Gracillariidae
Genus:	Macrosaccus
Species:	M. robiniella
Binomial name
	Macrosaccus robiniella; (Clemens, 1859)
Synonyms
	Lithocolletis robiniella Clemens, 1859; Phyllonorycter robiniella; Argyromiges pseudacaciella Fitch, 1859; Lithocolletis pseudacaciella;

Macrosaccus robiniella is a moth of the Gracillariidae family.

Distribution

It is native to North America (where it is distributed from Ontario south to South Carolina and west to Missouri and Texas), but is an introduced species in Europe, where it was first reported near Basel, Switzerland, in 1983. Later, it was also reported in France, Germany, northern Italy (1988), Austria (1989), and Slovakia (1992). It spread gradually through Austria, reaching Hungary in the mid 1990s.

Adult description

The wingspan is 5.5 to 6.5 mm. There are two to three generations per year.

Life history

The larvae feed on Robinia pseudoacacia, Robinia viscosa and Robinia hispida. They mine the leaves of their host plant. The mine begins as an elongate serpentine track which enlarges to an elongate-oval, whitish blotch located on one side of the midrib and usually on the underside of the leaflet. Eventually the mine becomes slightly tentiform due to the silk laid down by the later instar larvae. There are five larval instars. The earliest instars are highly modified sapfeeders with strongly depressed bodies and reduced chaetotaxy with a maximum length 3.7 mm. Later instars are tissue feeders, with cylindrical bodies and a maximum length of 4.7 mm. The body colour is pale green to white.^[1]