Stigmella benanderella (Wolff, 1955)
Diagnosis. See diagnosis of S. zelleriella.
Male. Wingspan: 4.6-5.2 mm. Head: frontal tuft grey-brown; collar and scape yellowish white; antenna dark grey, half length of forewing. Thorax grey brown. Forewing: area proximal to fascia grey-brown, coarsely scaled; fascia at three-fourths from wing base, yellowish grey, very indistinct and usually reduced to two opposite spots or altogether absent; distal to fascia dark grey, coarsely scaled; terminal cilia pale yellowish grey, darker grey at tornus. Hindwing: pale grey, cilia pale yellowish grey. Abdomen dark grey with small, yellowish grey anal tufts. Female. Wingspan: 3.8-5.0 mm. Frontal tuft yellowish grey, on vertex more or less mixed with dark grey-brown, antenna slightly less than half length of forewing. Inner half of forewing pale ochreous, usually with a few brownish scales at base of costa and before fascia; fascia reduced to a few slightly paler scales at costa and tornus; apical part grey-brown to dark grey, coarsely scaled, cilia pale yellowish. Hindwing and cilia pale yellowish grey. Abdomen dark grey; ovipositor not or only slightly protruding; anal tufts short, grey-brown. Male genitalia. Vinculum with shallow anterior emargination. Uncus long, tapering, with deep medial incision. Gnathos with long, parallel horns and prominent anterior processes. Valva relatively short, terminating in two equally long, blunt processes. Transtilla with distinct sublateral processes. Aedeagus short, approximately two thirds length of genital capsule, with 5-6 unilaterally more sclerotized cornuti and one equally long, sharply pointed spine; sometimes a few very small additional spines. Female genitalia. Corpus bursae with band of relatively large dentate chitin-plates and dense cover of long but indistinct pectinations, posterior part of bursa (ductus bursae) wide. Ductus spermathecae without spines. Apophyses anteriores short, posteriores distinctly longer. Anal tufts less than half length of apophyses. Ovipositor not or only slightly protruding, tip blunt.
Host plants: Salix repens and S. rosmarinifolia, in northern Scandinavia on S. phylicifolia. Egg: usually, in S. Sweden at least 75%, laid on upper side of leaf, away from rib or margin. Larva: yellow. Mine : a very short gallery which widens to a small blotch, often absorbing the earlier gallery. Frass almost filling the gallery, more irregularly dispersed in the blotch. Cocoon: brown.
In Denmark from NEJ and NEZ; S. Sweden to Boh. and öl.; the northern form in Ly. Lpm. In southern Norway HE; S. Finland Ab and N.; the northern form in ObS. - Outside Scandinavia it is known from Hungary only.
Voltinism: in southern Sweden at least two annual broods; mining larvae collected in the first half of July, mid-August and September; moths in the first half of May, early July and early August. The northern form seems to be univoltine; adults in June.
Description based on Johansson and Nielsen (1990)