Cosmopterigidae

34.008 Reed Beauty Cosmopterix scribaiella Zeller, 1850

Notable A

Similar species:

Forewing: 5 to 5.5mm

Habitats: Marshes and fens.

Habits: The moth can be swept from the foodplant. It comes to light.

Foodplant: The larva mines a gallery in a blade of Common Reed. This is lined with silk and eventually unevenly widened to almost half of the width of the leaf. The frass that is not ejected is heaped at the lowest part of the mine. The larva hides in a silk tube at the base of the mine. There can be many mines in a leaf. It overwinters in the mine and pupates there in a cocoon next to a preformed exit hole, in May.