Gelechiidae

35.057 Wight Seedhead Moth Metzneria littorella (Douglas, 1850)

pRDB1

Similar species:

Forewing: 4.5 to 6.5mm

Habitats: Vegetated undercliff and land slips.

Habits: The moth is easily disturbed from the foodplant during the day. It comes to light.

Foodplant: The larva feeds in the seed-head of Buck's-horn Plantain. When not feeding it rests in a dense silk tube fixed along an eaten out hollow in the upper stem below a seed-head. The full-fed larva overwinters on the stem tube under a covering of empty seeds. It pupates in the tube in the spring.