Coleophoridae

37.022 Willow Case-bearer Coleophora lusciniaepennella (Treitschke, 1833)

Common

Similar species:

Forewing: 5 to 6mm

Habitats: Damp deciduous woodland, moorland, heathland, carr and other sites where the foodplants are present.

Habits: The moth flies at sunrise and sunset and occasionally comes to light.

Foodplant: The larva blotch mines a leaf, then forms a tricolored case from three segments of leaf stacked end to end. From late October it overwinters in the axil of a twig. In the spring the long, slender tricolor and frequently woolly larval cases are easy to find as they blotch the very early leaves of Grey Willow, Eared Willow or Bog Myrtle and occasionally Hybrid Black Poplar and Aspen. In Scotland it also feeds on birches. The final strongly compressed, keeled case is a bivalved composite leaf case 8 to 10mm long, m.o. at a 30 to 45° angle. It pupates near the tip of a twig. On the European mainland it has also been recorded feeding on Goat Willow, Creeping Willow, White Willow, Weeping Willow, Crack Willow, Almond Willow, Bay Willow and Osier.