Author: (Fabricius, 1781)
Species Overview:
Adult: 20-29 mm wingspan; forewings pale greyish brown, with dark brown markings; hindwings grey.
Egg: Lozotaenia forsterana egg batch
Larva: 20-25 mm long, dull grey-green, darker above, with a brown or black head; prothoracic plate green or brown; anal plate greenish, marked with black on each side; anal comb present; thoracic legs brown [Lozotaenia forsterana larva ].
Pupa: 12-14 mm, dark brown [L. forsterana pupa ].
Taxonomic Description:
Male:
Lozotaenia forsterana adult
Lozotaenia forsterana males
Lozotaenia forsterana male 2
External characters: Antenna weakly dentate-ciliate. Forewing without costal fold, but sometimes with edge of costa slightly raised from base to near middle. Ground colour light greyish brown, sparsely strigulated with brownish; markings dark brown; basal fascia obsolete; median fascia present on costa as a strong quadrate spot and represented in the pre-tornal area by a broad suffusion; pre-apical spot well developed. Hindwing grey; cilia paler, with an inconspicuous pre-apical fuscous spot on costal margin (Bradley et al., 1973).
male genitalia L. forsterana
Genitalia: Uncus broad; gnathos with large terminal hook. Valva tapering apically; sacculus broad; transtilla narrow medially, with triangular lateral processes covered with spinules. Aedeagus with series of spinules along left wall.
Female:
Lozotaenia forsterana female
Lozotaenia forsterana female 2
Lozotaenia forsterana female 3
External characters: Usually larger than male; apex of forewing more prominent; antenna minutely ciliate. Colour and markings as in male.
female gen. L. forsterana
Genitalia: Sterigma cup-shaped, antrum well sclerotized. Ductus bursae with long, thin cestum; corpus bursae with signum.
Variation:
In both sexes the ground colour of the forewing varies from brownish grey to greyish brown. The markings vary in strength, being somewhat darker in heavily marked specimens; the median fascia is often obsolescent on the dorsum, but on the costa the markings, although reduced, usually remain prominent. Specimens lacking the strigulation occasionally occur, the forewing ground colour being almost unicolorous (Bradley et al., 1973).
Biology:
Adults occur from late June until August. Eggs, which are laid on the foliage, hatch in September. The larvae then feed during the autumn before hibernating. Activity is resumed in April, each larvae living between two or more leaves strongly spun together with silk. During the blossom period, they will also attack flowers. Pupation occurs in June, between spun leaves (Alford, 1995).
Host plants:
Recorded on a wide variety of plants of Pinaceae, Vacciniaceae, Caprifoliaceae, Rosaceae and Saxifragaceae. Cultivated plants include raspberry (Ribes idaeus), strawberry (Fraxinus), Campanula, cherry laural (Prunus laurocerasus), honeysuckle (Lonicera), ivy (Hedera) and various conifers (Larix, Abies, Picea, Pinus).
Damage:
rolled apple leaf
damage on Thuja
If numerous, larvae can cause considerable defoliation but serious attacks are rare. Larvae feeding on flowers may cause fruit abortion or malformation.
Distribution:
Palaearctic Region excl. Japan.
Pheromone:
Pheromone unknown.