The wingspan is 8–10 mm. The head is metallic brassy-grey. Forewings are dark purplish-grey, mixed with black, with some whitish scales ; a yellow subdorsal spot in the middle, and a smaller one in disc posteriorly; an ill-defined ochreous-white tornal spot, and another on costa at 3/4. Hindwings are grey. The larva is yellow-whitish; dorsal line brownish; lateral line of orange -reddish spots; head pale brown; plate of 2 blackish.[2]
Adults are on the wing from May to June, and again from August to September. There are two generations per year.
Pnigalio gyamiensis is a larval-pupal ectoparasitoid of Chrysoesthia sexguttella. The female of P. gyamiensis lays a single egg on the skin of the host larva or nearby it, without any significant preference for a particular variant. The presence of long hairs on its body provides the newly hatched first larval instar with high mobility.[3]
Life cycle
Larva
Older larva
Pupa with and without cocoon
References
^Junnilainen, J.et al. 2010: The gelechiid fauna of the southern Ural Mountains, part II: list of recorded species with taxonomic notes (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae). Zootaxa, 2367: 1–68. Preview
^Meyrick, E., 1895 A Handbook of British Lepidoptera MacMillan, London pdf This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Keys and description