Gelechiidae

35.028 Gorse Wanderer Brachmia blandella (Fabricius, 1798)

Common

Similar species:

Forewing: 4.5 to 5.5mm

Habitats: Wherever the foodplants are present.

Habits: The moth can be disturbed from mature gorse bushes during the early evening. It flies from dusk and later comes to light.

Foodplant: The larva has been recorded feeding on the stamens and developing pods in detached and withered Common Gorse flowers caught in the spines, from a web on gorse, and once as an inquiline in an insect gall on Grand Fir and in a Marsh Thistle seed-head. It pupates in a flimsy cocoon spattered with frass and gorse debris.