Stigmella saginella

Stonis, Jonas R., Diškus, Arūnas, Remeikis, Andrius, Navickaitė, Asta & Rocienė, Agnė, 2013, Description of new species of oak leaf-miners (Lepidoptera: Nepticulidae), with notes on the species groups of Stigmella Schrank associated with Quercus as a host-plant, Zootaxa 3737 (3), pp. 201-222 : 218

The saginella group

Diagnostic characters ( Fig. 41 ): forewing either unicolorous, or speckled, or with fascia; androconial scales not characteristic (absent); in male genitalia, uncus always with two short and broad lateral lobes, gnathos always with two caudal processes, valva almost always with thickened long chaetae, apical process of valva usually weakly individualized, not prominent, juxta always present (X-shaped or closely similar), aedeagus only with a few (or none) spine-like cornuti, which are never aggregated into a band, manica always absent; in female genitalia, accessory sac always short to very short, not folded, without spines, corpus bursae always with signa.

Host-plant preferences. Subgenus Quercus , sections: Lobatae and Quercus , also genus Castanea ) ( Fig. 38 ).

Distribution and taxonomic diversity. Comprises 10 species. Nearctic: Stigmella saginella (Clemens, 1861) ; S. castaneaefoliella (Chambers, 1875) ; S. latifasciella (Chambers, 1878) ; S. flavipedella (Braun, 1914) ; S. sclerostylota Newton & Wilkinson, 1982 .

Nearctic and Neotropical (Central American): Stigmella nigriverticella (Chambers, 1875) .

Neotropical (Central American): Stigmella jaguari Remeikis & Stonis, 2013 ; S. lauta Diškus & Stonis, 2013 ; S. sublauta Remeikis & Stonis, 2013 ; S. aurifasciata Diškus & Stonis, 2013 (Stonis et al. 2013a).

Figures

FIGURE 38. Feeding preferences of the saginella, the cornuta and the hemargyrella groups. Some species of the saginella group may feed on more than one host-plant, thus the total percentage of host use for the group exceeds 100 %.

FIGURES 39 – 41. Diagnostic characters of the caesurifasciella, the cornuta and the saginella species groups.