Author: (Haworth, 1811)
Species Overview:
Adult: 15-18 mm wingspan; forewing ground colour white, sparsely suffused and strigulated with plumbeous, with dark fuscous basal patch, extending along costal fold in male; usually a quadrate blotch of comparatively clear ground colour present on dorsum; median fascia tawny-brown, obsolete below costa, confluent dorsally with pre-tornal marking; subterminal fascia extending obliquely to costal strigulae, the latter rather thick and not very oblique; apical spot inconspicuous; ocellus with vertical submetallic plumbeous striae laterally and several black dots several black dots in upper part. Hindwing grey.
Larva: head and prothoracic plate blackish brown or black; abdomen reddish brown; pinacula concolorous with integument, inconspicuous; anal plate and thoracic legs dark brown [Notocelia trimaculana larva].
Pupa: 8-10 mm long; light reddish brown at first, becoming blackish later; frons protruding, without processes; tip of abdomen blunt, abdominal segment with 3 pairs of hooked setae dorsally and 2 pairs of hooked setae ventrally, ventral rim dentate, spines on anal segment partly situated in two rows, only slightly bigger than those on the ninth segment. In a loosely spun cocoon, usually in the larval habitation [details pupa N. trimaculana ].
Taxonomic Description:
Male:
Notocelia trimaculana adult 1
Notocelia trimaculana adult 2
Notocelia trimaculana male
External characters: 15-18 mm wingspan. Forewing with a narrow costal fold reaching to middle of wing; hindwing with dorsal fold. Forewing ground colour white, sparsely suffused and strigulated with plumbeous, a sprinkling of brown and black, most pronounced costally, usually a quadrate blotch of comparatively clear ground colour on dorsum beyond basal patch; costal strigulae rather thick and not very oblique; basal and sub-basal fasciae dark fuscous intermixed with plumbeous, confluent and forming a diffusely strigulated basal patch extending along costal fold, its outer edge sharply defined below costa and varying from convex to almost straight; median fascia, pre-tornal marking and subterminal fascia tawny-brown variably mixed or suffused with fuscous and marked with irregular black dots; median fascia obsolescent below costa, confluent dorsally with pre-tornal marking; subterminal fascia arising from below middle of termen, extending obliquely to costal strigulae and coalescing with an inconspicuous, tawny apical spot; ocellar area white, with vertical submetallic plumbeous striae laterally, the innermost very broad, several black dots in upper part extending into subterminal fascia; cilia dark grey, whitish around tornus with a fuscous sub-basal line along termen. Hindwing grey; cilia paler, with a dark sub-basal line (Bradley et al., 1979).
male genitalia N. trimaculana
Genitalia: Uncus rudimentary, gnathos not developed. Socii relatively broad (shorter than in Notocelia rosaecolana). Valva relatively narrow, with clasper, ventral margin of valva with deep notch before brush of cucullus. Aedeagus with group of long cornuti, and two additional fixed, short cornuti, situated terminally.
Female:
External characters: Similar to male but usually with median fascia better defined on costa.
female genitalia N. trimaculana
Genitalia: Lamella postvaginalis broad, with semi-membranous hairy lobes posteriorly. Cingulum relatively long, situated post-medially in ductus bursae; ductus seminalis originating here. Corpus bursae with two signa.
Biology:
damage to leaves of Ulmus
Moths fly in June. Larvae occur in April and May, feeding amongst spun leaves of the food plant, moving from shoot to shoot, usually on terminal shoots high up on the tree. They pupate in a loosely spun cocoon, usually in the larval habitation, in May and June (Bradley et al., 1979).
Host plants:
Crataegus, Prunus spinosa, Pyrus communes, Ulmus
Damage:
Larvae has been recorded from Pyrus communes, feeding amongst spun leaves, but is of no economic importance.
According to Alford, 1995, larvae can cause slight distortion of young terminal shoots on Crataegus, but infestations are unimportant.
Distribution:
Europe to Russia (Siberia) and Japan; Northern Africa.
Pheromone:
Pheromone unknown.
Attractantia:
Z 10Z 12-14Ac
(Witzgall et al., 1996b)