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.