Momphidae

40.014 Enchanter's Mompha Mompha terminella (Humphreys & Westwood, 1845)

Notable B

Similar species:

Forewing: 3.5 to 4.5mm

Habitats: Open woodland and shady places where the foodplant is present.

Habits: The moth can be swept from the foodplant in the day.

Foodplant: The larva mines the leaves of Enchanters Nightshade. The mine is a tight spiral gallery with a central line of frass around the site where the egg was laid on the upperside of the leaf. A second irregular pale green mine, again with a central line of frass is usually formed nearby or occasionally on a new leaf. This gallery mine soon becomes a blotch and several blotches may be amalgamated. The larva is dirty white with a light brown head, a yellow brown prothoracic plate and even paler anal plate. The larva pupates by mid-September in a cocoon spun to a leaf, in the leaf litter or occasionally in the mine.