Conopomorpha flueggella is a moth

Moth

A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

 of the Gracillariidae

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, Cameraria ohridella....

 family. It is known from China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 (Tianjin).

Adult

The wingspan

Wingspan

The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

 is 8-15.5 mm. The head is grey to greyish brown and the frons is greyish white. The thorax and tegula are dark brown. The forewing is narrow and the costal and dorsal margins are nearly parallel. The ground color is greyish brown to dark brown. The hindwing and cilia are greyish brown and the abdomen is grey, although the first two segments are shining white. It is similar to Conopomorpha litchiella

Conopomorpha litchiella

Conopomorpha litchiella is a moth of the Gracillariidae family. It is known from Australia, China , India , Malaysia , Nepal, Taiwan and Thailand....

, but distinguishable by the uniformly greyish brown to dark brown forewing with three pairs of stripes and differences in the genitalia. Furthermore, in Conopomorpha litchiella, the forewing is whitish yellow in distal portion and the larva is yellowish green.

Egg

The egg is flat, elliptic and about 0.3 mm in length and 0.2 mm in width. There is a transparent membrane in the surface and an irregular meshy stripe on the egg shell. It is milky white and semitransparent but turns straw yellow when close to hatching.

Larva

Young instar larva are flat, yellowish white, semitransparent and with distinct segments. Mature larva are 5.5-7.0 mm. The head is deep brown and the anterior half to two-thirds of each segment on the thorax and abdomen is red, while the remainder is white.

Pupa

The pupa is 4-6 mm, fusiform and greenish yellow in the early pupal stage, changing gradually to yellowish brown and eventually blackish brown before eclosion.

Life history

There are two generations per year in Tianjin, China. Mature larvae quit the fruits of their foodplant before they are ripe and pupate on leaves or leaf litter. The pupal stage lasts from nine to twelve days. Adults of the second generation hibernate. Adults occur from May to the first ten days of June, and from the last ten days of June to the first ten days of August. Adults can emerge during the whole day, but the peak occurs in the morning. The mating occurs usually in the morning. At night, the moths are actively drinking nectar and ovipositing. A parasitic Ichneumonid species was reared from pupae collected in the field.