Stigmella paradoxa (Frey, 1858)
Diagnosis. It is difficult to separate paradoxa from several other unicolorous species using external characters; several species particularly in the ruficapitella group with similarly coloured wings, head, collar and with long antennae present difficulties, but paradoxa lacks anal tufts in male. The male genitalia differ from all other unicolorous species in northern Europe in having almost globular genital capsule, broad uncus and gnathos. The broad abdominal tip, short apophyses, hook on apophyses posteriores and folded accessory sac separate the female genitalia from those of all other northern European species. S. pyrivora Gustafsson (from Cyprus) is very similar to paradoxa but minor differences in the male genitalia (slightly smaller cornuti) and mine (beginning with a short gallery) suggest separate specific status for pyrivora.
Male. Wingspan: 4.3-5.1 mm. Head: frontal tuft yellowish orange to ferruginous; scape and collar yellowish white; antenna three- fifths length of forewing. Thorax concolorous with base of forewing. Forewing: shining copper-brown with faint purple tinge; purple tinge more obvious towards apex; base of costa dark brown; terminal cilia concolorous, paler at tips. Hindwing: greyish brown. Abdomen fuscous.
Female. Wingspan: 4.4-5.1 mm. Antenna half length of forewing. Abdominal tip broad. Otherwise similar to male. Male genitalia. Genital capsule almost as wide as long and almost globular. Vinculum with broad emargination in anterior margin; corners blunt. Uncus very broad, with a pair of small lateral projections; hind margin weakly sclerotized, lateral margins well sclerotized. Tegumen approximately half as long as uncus, rounded. Gnathos with very long transverse bar, long and slender horns and small anterior processes. Valva with large, broad inner lobe, ventro-distal corner produced, almost reaching tip of distal process. Transtilla with long transverse bar without sublateral processes. Aedeagus approximately as long as genital capsule; vesica almost completely covered with spines and curved thorn-like cornuti of various sizes.
Female genitalia. Bursa copulatrix approximately three- quarters length of abdomen. Accessory sac much shorter than corpus bursae, rounded, with prominent reticulate field and many prominent longitudinal and transverse folds. Corpus bursae oval and slender, covered with pectinations; pectinations indistinct in anterior half and near accessory sac. Apophyses anteriores broad, gradually tapering, tips blunt. Apophyses posteriores with small hook-shaped process at bases; subapical portion slightly thickened, tip blunt. Ductus spermathecae not or only few times convoluted.
Host plant: Crataegus sp. Egg: on underside near or at tip of a marginal lobe. Larva: pale green. Mine : blotch mine without gallery; frass in patch in centre of mine. Cocoon: red-brown.
Not recorded from Denmark, Norway and Finland. In Sweden from Sk., Bl. and öl. - From Ireland and Britain to central Europe, including Poland, Hungary, Austria, S. France, Spain and N. Italy. No records from The Netherlands and Belgium.
Voltinism: one annual generation in northwest Europe; two generations per year in southeast Europe. In northwest Europe the mine is found during July.
Description based on Johansson and Nielsen (1990)
