Author: (Hübner, 1799)
Species Overview:
Adult: 11-15 mm wingspan; forewing strongly falcate; ground colour whitish, but overlaid with fuscous or grey (giving a fuscous or grey appearance), with thick strigulae and a contrasting greyish white ocellar patch (this patch relatively broad); markings unclear, fuscous mixed with ferruginous. Hindwing light grey.
Larva: 10-11 mm long; head yellowish brown; prothoracic plate pale yellowish brown, sometimes tinged with green; abdomen light greenish grey to brownish grey; pinacula and anal plate brownish to dark brown. Post-hibernation larvae have a dark brown to blackish head capsule.
Pupa: 5-6 mm long; brown; in a white silken cocoon in the larval habitation.
Taxonomic Description:
Male:
Ancylis tineana adult 1
Ancylis tineana adult 2
Ancylis tineana adult 3
External characters: 11-15 mm wingspan. Forewing strongly falcate; ground colour whitish, almost entirely overlaid with fuscous or grey, with thick, often contiguous plumbeous strigulae; basal and sub-basal fasciae indeterminate, represented by fuscous strigulae; median fascia poorly defined, usually indicated by a fuscous, sometimes mixed with ferruginous, linear streak extending from costa to subapical area, diffuse and indeterminate dorsally, confluent with an ill-defined, fuscous mixed with ferruginous pre-tornal marking; subterminal fascia indeterminate, ferruginous mixed with fuscous, spreading into apical area; a prominent, suborbicular greyish white ocellar patch, coarsely strigulated with fuscous; cilia white or cream-white, suffused with fuscous above apex, with a blackish subapical dash, apices suffused with grey and a pale grey basal line along termen. Hindwing light grey; cilia paler, with a dark sub-basal line (Bradley et al., 1979).
male genitalia A. tineana
Genitalia: Uncus absent; gnathos absent; socii relatively small. Sacculus with sub-triangular projection before notch in ventral margin of valva, this notch very large. Cucullus short, broad at apex. Aedeagus with several short cornuti.
Female:
External characters: Similar to male
female genitalia A. tineana
Genitalia: Lamella antevaginalis with small median, and broad, hairy lateral parts. Antrum long, slightly broadening caudally. Corpus bursae with two signa; base of signa elongated.
Biology:
In Europe, there are two generations yearly. Moths of the first generation fly in April and May, those of the second in July and August. Larvae live between spun or rolled leaves of the host plant, in June and July. They pupate in June or July. Larvae of the following generation occur in September and October. They overwinter until spring of the next year, in a hibernaculum, which they construct by spinning the left and right edges of a leaf together such that it forms a neat, slightly inflated pod folded along the midrib. They pupate in April or May, usually inside their hibernaculum. Occasionally a larva will seek new quarters before pupating.
The pupa is relatively small compared to the size of the hibernation chamber, but is only attached to the silk lining of the chamber by its cremaster.
Host plants:
Malus, Pyrus, Crataegus, Prunus spinosa, Prunus domestica, Betula and Populus tremula.
Damage:
Larvae can occasionally become of economic importance in orchards.
Distribution:
Europe from Southern Sweden to Asia Minor; Trans-Caucasus to Siberia and the southern part of East Russia; North America.
Pheromone:
Pheromone unknown.
Parasitoids:
Goniozus claripennis Först (Bethylidae)