Prays peregrina

 

Scientific name: Prays peregrina

Found in: Lousada, Porto, Portugal

EN

This species is a newly reported Lepidoptera in Portugal. It was reported in 2021 and ever since I started looking for it. Last year I could find mines on my rues (its hostplant) however no adult was found. However this year I found out the rue practically half mined and I could find a caterpillar in its last instar and almost pre-pupating. Probably the season I looked for it was too late to find the larvae last year. 

The caterpillars are leafminers and they usually mine leafs and steams. In the last instar it gets out of the leaf-steam and pupates. The pupating is very short, it takes around 1 week for the adult to hatch.

You can find info about this discover in Marabuto´s publication here.

PT

Esta especie é nova para Portugal. Foi registada em 2021 e desde entao procurei por ela nas arrudas (sua suposta planta hospedeira) pela sua fase larvar ou adulta, mas sem exito, mesmo apesar de que a planta apresentava sinais de minas. Este ano, contudo, encontrei a mesma arruda cheia de minas (praticamente metade da planta estava arrasada de minas) e consegui encontrar uma larva no instar final, quase na fase de pre-pupa. Provavelmente a razao de nao a ter encontrado no ano passado deve-se a epoca que procurei por tal. 

A larva e mineira, e geralmente ataca as folhas e os ramos. No instar final, a larva abandona as folhas ou ramos e pupa nas folhas. A fase de pupa e bastante curta, demora cerca de 1 semana. 
Podeis encontrar mais informacao sobre esta especie na publicacao recente de Marabuto aqui.