ARMERIA. Thrifts. [Plumbaginaceae]

Three species, two subspecies and one hybrid of Armeria are recorded in Britain.

No Diptera miners are recorded on Armeria in Britain.

No non-Diptera miners are recorded on Armeria in Britain.

Elsewhere the British non-Diptera miner, Cnephasia incertana, is recorded on Armeria (see below).

A key to the European miners, based on characteristics of the mines, immature stages and where relevant the larval cases, recorded on Armeria is provided in Bladmineerders van Europa. This includes Cnephasia incertana.

Key for the identification of the mines of British
non-Diptera recorded on Armeria

Note: The larvae of mining Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera may live in a corridor mine, a corridor-blotch mine, a blotch mine, a case, a rolled or folded leaf, a tentiform mine or sandwiched between two more or less circular leaf sections in later instars. Larva may pupate in a silk cocoon. The larva may have at least six legs (although they may be reduced or absent), a head capsule and chewing mouthparts with opposable mandibles (see video of a gracillarid larva feeding). Larvae of Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera usually also have abdominal legs (see examples). Frass, if present, never in two rows. Unless feeding externally from within a case the larva usually vacates the mine by chewing an exit hole. Pupa with visible head appendages, wings and legs which lie in sheaths (see examples).

1 > Leaf-miner: In the first instar the larva mines the leaves, forming short, irregular, blotch-like mines, but in later instars it lives externally, feeding in spun leaves and often twisting those of tender shoots. Larval head light-brown or yellowish brown, edged with black postero-laterally, ocellar area blackish; prothoracic plate black edged with whitish anteriorly; abdomen dull dark green; pinacula distinct, black, sometimes brownish but with black bases to setae; anal plate large, black (Bradley et al., 1973). Small, full depth mine without a definite shape; little frass. Some silk is deposited in the mine. The larva soon leaves the mine and continues feeding among spun leaves (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Recorded on numerous genera and species of plant families, but not yet on Armeria, in Britain. Recorded on numerous genera and species of plant families including Armeria elsewhere. Widespread in Britain and continental Europe. Also recorded from the Channel Is.

Cnephasia incertana (Treitschke, 1835) [Lepidoptera: Tortricidae]