Macarostola japonica

Macarostola japonica
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Gracillariidae
Genus: Macarostola
Species: M. japonica
Binomial name
Macarostola japonica
Kumata, 1977

Macarostola japonica is a moth of the Gracillariidae family. It is known from Japan (Honshū and Satunan).[1]

The wingspan is 9–10 mm.

The larvae feed on Euscaphis japonica. There are four or five instars. In the first two instars the larvae are of sap-feeding type with a flat head, and in the third to supposed fifth instars they are tissue-feeders, with a round head and a cylindrical body as in usual lepidopterous larvae. The mine starts as a tortuous serpentine mine, which is located inside the lower epidermis of a leaf and is whitish in colour. The second instar larva expands the linear mine to an elongated blotch along the leaf-margin. In this stage the mine occupies the lower layer of spongy parenchyma. The larva of the third instar feeds on the whole parenchymal tissues remaining inside the blotch-mine, then makes it into a tentiform type. After the third moult, the larva leaves the mine through a round hole and migrates to another leaf, which it cuts from the edge towards the midrib. This cut edge is rolled to form a cone on the underside of the leaf, then the larva continues to feed inside the cone. When full-grown the larva leaves the cone to pupate. Pupation takes place at a margin of the same leaf or another one. The cocoon is whitish, boat-shaped, without any bubbles on its upper side.[2]

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