Elachistidae

38.024 Sweet-grass Miner Elachista poae Stainton, 1855

Notable B

Similar species:

Forewing: 4.5 to 5.5mm

Habitats: The margins of slow moving streams, lakes and ponds.

Habits: The moth can be found emerging in the morning between 8.00 and 10.00 hours.

Foodplant: The larva mines a leaf of Reed Sweet-grass. It forms a pale green gallery mine with scattered frass from the leaf tip down to the sheath. The mine later becomes a brownish-red, but is still comparitively inconspicuous. The larval mine may reverse when it reaches water level or continue into the sheath and travel back up another leaf. The larva is green-grey dorsally and pale yellow ventrally. The head is pale brown as is the prothoracic plate which is divided into four parts. Pupation takes place under a web about 60cm above the water in an unmined leaf.