32.017 Agonopterix arenella Copyright Martin Evans
 32.017 Agonopterix arenella Copyright Martin Evans
 Distribution map Copyright Martin Evans
 Life stages table Copyright Martin Evans  32.017 Agonopterix arenella Copyright Martin Evans

Depressariidae

32.017 Brindled Buff Agonopterix arenella ([Denis & Schiffermüller], 1775)

Common

Similar species:

Forewing: 7.5 to 10.5mm

Habitats: Downland, dry grassland, verges, woodland clearings or wherever the foodplants are found.

Habits: The moth comes to light.

Foodplant: The larva at first mines a short full depth corridor, which it soon abandons. When feeding on Common Knapweed, Greater Knapweed and Saw-wort it lives in a silk tube in a downward rolled leaf. When feeding on thistles (Carduus and Cirsium) it eats out 'windows' from a web under a leaf. It is also recorded from Greater Burdock and on the European mainland from Carline Thistle, sow-thistles and Field Scabious. It pupates in the earth or in the leaf litter.