About Stigmella plagicolella (Stainton, 1854) Fletcher et al., 1945
Stigmella plagicolella is a moth species with a wingspan of 4–5 millimeters. The thick, erect hairs on the head vertex are orange, and the collar is a dark bronze fuscous-white. The antennal eyecaps are whitish. The forewings are a shining deep purplish-bronze, with a shining whitish fascia located beyond the middle; the apical area beyond this fascia is dark purple-fuscous. The hindwings are grey. Adults are bivoltine, and are on wing from May to June, and again in August. Eggs are laid on the underside of a leaf in June or August, usually near the midrib. The larvae are pale whitish yellow with a reddish brown head. They mine leaves of their host plants. Initially, they create a slender corridor containing a wide, uninterrupted frass line. After a moult, this corridor abruptly widens into a blotch. The host plants consumed by Stigmella plagicolella larvae are: apple (Malus domestica), apricot (Prunus armeniaca), wild cherry (Prunus avium), cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera), Prunus cerasifera var. pissardii, plum (Prunus domestica), Prunus domestica insititia, mahaleb cherry (Prunus mahaleb), Chinese plum (Prunus mume), blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), Klamath plum (Prunus subcordata), and flowering plum (Prunus triloba). Pupation occurs outside of the leaf mine, inside a pale ochreous brown cocoon.
