Coleophoridae

37.039 Black-spot Case-bearer Coleophora hemerobiella (Scopoli, 1763)

Local

Similar species:

Forewing: 5.5 to 7mm

Habitats: Deciduous woodland and margins, rides and clearings, orchards and gardens.

Habits: The moth is nocturnal.

Foodplant: The larva mines the underside of leaves of Hawthorn, apples, Wild Cherry, Wild Plum, Pears, Common Whitebeam and Rowan. It has a preference for two metre high saplings. During the first autumn it cuts a curved piece of cuticle from the mine and starts its composite case which is continued until it overwinters. It feeds in the following spring, at the same time enlarging its now pistol shaped case, with more leaf cuticle. From June it aestivates attached to twigs, going straight into the next winters hibernation. In the following April it recommences feeding and in late April cuts its final case from the leaf margin. It is dark-brown, straight, 8 to 10mm long, m.o. at a 90° angle. It pupates in June attached to a twig or on the upper surface of a leaf.

On the European mainland it has also been recorded feeding on Midland Hawthorn, Japanese Crab, Siberian Crab, Cherry Plum, Sour Cherry, Medlar, Swedish Whitebeam and several Cotoneaster spp.