Fossil leaf-mining caterpillars from amber are firstly described as the new species Phyllocnistis cretacea Upper Cretaceous Myanmar and Phyllonorycter inopinata Eocene Baltic amber. Both show typical traits of leaf-miners, specifically, later instars their respective genera. The findings give further evidence for these being quite old conservative genera Gracillariidae. These basal Ditrysia whi...

Europe has one of the best-known Lepidopteran faunas in the world, yet many species are still being discovered, especially in groups of small moths. Here we describe a new gracillariid species from the south-eastern Alps, Callistobasistrigella Huemer, Deutsch & Triberti, sp. n. It shows differences from its sister species Callistocoffeella in morphology, the barcode region of the cytochrome c o...

Male, female and immature stages of Phyllocnistis tethys Moreira & Vargas sp. nov. (Lepidoptera; Gracillariidae) from the Atlantic Rain Forest, coastal mountains of southern Brazil, are described and illustrated, using both optical and scanning electron microscopy. A preliminary analysis of mitochondrial (COI) DNA sequences including putative members of congeneric species is also provided. The ...

In any hosteparasitoid interaction, the detection of the host in its microhabitat is a crucial step in the interaction that has a major influence on the parasitoid’s fitness. We used bioassays to investigate whether the parasitoid Sympiesis sericeicornis (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) uses the vibrations of its host Phyllonorycter sp. gr. blancardella (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) to detect it in th...

The sensory ecology of predator detection by prey has been little studied for any arthropod prey predator system, in contrast to the sensory ecology of prey finding by predators. The aim of this study was to quantify the foraging signals produced by the parasitoid Sympiesis sericeicornis (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) and the sensory ecology of enemy detection and the avoidance behaviour of the leaf...