''Phyllonorycter deschkai'' is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of ...

of the family

Gracillariidae Gracillariidae is an important family of insects in the order Lepidoptera and the principal family of leaf miners that includes several economic, horticultural or recently invasive pest species such as the horse-chestnut leaf miner, ''Camerar ...

. It is known from

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, ...

on altitudes between 500 and 1,750 meters. There are two generations per year. The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. Th ...

e feed on ''

Amelanchier ovalis ''Amelanchier ovalis'', commonly known as snowy mespilus (a name which is also attached to the related '' A. lamarckii'') or serviceberry, is a deciduous shrub in the family Rosaceae. Its pome fruits are edible and can be eaten raw or cooked. The ...

'', ''

Cotoneaster integerrimus ''Cotoneaster integerrimus'', the common cotoneaster, is a species of '' Cotoneaster'' native to central and eastern Europe and southwest Asia, from southern Belgium and eastern France south to Italy, and east through Germany to the Balkans, nort ...

'', ''

Cotoneaster nebrodensis ''Cotoneaster'' is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, native to the Palaearctic region (temperate Asia, Europe, north Africa), with a strong concentration of diversity in the genus in the mountains of southwestern Chin ...

'', ''

Sorbus aria ''Sorbus aria'' (syn. ''Aria nivea''), the whitebeam or common whitebeam, is a deciduous tree, the type species of the subgenus ''Sorbus'' subg. ''Aria'' of the genus ''Sorbus''. It is native to most of Europe as well as North Africa (Algeria, Mo ...

'' and ''

Sorbus chamaemespilus ''Sorbus chamaemespilus'', the false medlar or dwarf whitebeam, is a species of ''Sorbus'' native to the mountains of central and southern Europe, from the Pyrenees east through the Alps to the Carpathians and the Balkans, growing at altitudes of ...

''. They

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

the leaves of their host plant.bladmineerders.nl
/ref>

References

deschkai Moths of Europe Moths described in 2007 {{Phyllonorycter-stub