The banded apple pigmy (''Stigmella malella'') 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

Nepticulidae Nepticulidae is a family of very small moths with a worldwide distribution. They are characterised by eyecaps over the eyes (see also Opostegidae, Bucculatricidae, Lyonetiidae). These pigmy moths or midget moths, as they are commonly known, incl ...

. It is found in almost all of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

, except

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan ...

is .The head is ferruginous-ochreous, the collar whitish. The antennal eyecaps are whitish, and the forewings dark fuscous with a shining white fascia beyond the middle. The hindwings are grey. Adults are on wing from April to August. The larvae feed on ''Malus x astracanica'', ''

Malus baccata ''Malus baccata'' is an Asian species of apple known by the common names Siberian crab apple, Siberian crab, Manchurian crab apple and Chinese crab apple. It is native to much of northern Asia, but is also grown elsewhere as an ornamental tree an ...

'', ''

Malus domestica An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

'', ''

Malus floribunda ''Malus floribunda'', common name Japanese flowering crabapple, Japanese crab, purple chokeberry, or showy crabapple, originates from Japan and East Asia. It may be a hybrid of ''M. toringo'' with ''M. baccata'', in which case it would be writte ...

'', ''

Malus fusca ''Malus fusca'', with the common names Oregon crabapple and Pacific crabapple, is a species of crabapple native to western North America. Description ''Malus fusca'' is a deciduous tree growing up to tall, with a trunk thick. The leaves are lo ...

'', ''

Malus ringo ''Malus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 30–55 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including the domesticated orchard apple, crab apples, wild apples, and rainberries. The genus is native to the temperate zone of th ...

'', ''

Malus sylvestris ''Malus sylvestris'', the European crab apple, is a species of the genus '' Malus'', native to Europe. Its scientific name means "forest apple" and the truly wild tree has thorns. Description Wild apple has an expanded crown and often appear ...

'' and sometimes ''

Prunus ''Prunus'' is a genus of trees and shrubs, which includes (among many others) the fruits plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, and almonds. Native to the North American temperate regions, the neotropics of South America, and the p ...

''. They

mine the leaves A leaf miner is any one of numerous species of insects in which the larval stage lives in, and eats, the leaf tissue of plants. The vast majority of leaf-mining insects are moths ( Lepidoptera), sawflies (Symphyta, the mother clade of wasps ...

of their host plant.

References

External links

Swedish mothsSpecies info''Stigmella malella'' images
at

Consortium for the Barcode of Life The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) was an international initiative dedicated to supporting the development of DNA barcoding as a global standard for species identification. CBOL's Secretariat Office is hosted by the National Museum of ...

lepiforum.de
Nepticulidae Moths described in 1854 Moths of Europe {{Stigmella-stub