Cosmopterigidae

34.010 Pale Reed Beauty Cosmopterix lienigiella Lienig & Zeller, 1846

Notable B

Similar species:

Forewing: 4.5 to 6mm

Habitats: Marshes and fens.

Habits: The moth can be swept from the foodplant during the day. It comes to light just after midnight.

Foodplant: The larva mines a gallery in a blade of Common Reed, which is widened to a broad blotch, entirely or partly running upwards and finally half as wide as the leaf. The larva does not spin a silk shelter in the gallery and therefore remains visible within the mine. The frass is dispersed throughout the mine as well as heaped at the narrow base. Sometimes there are several mines in a leaf. The full-fed larva overwinters in the mine where it pupates in early May.