Coleophora cf. trochilella

• Subfamily:
• Wingspan: 11-15 mm
• Flight period: Jun - Jul
• Spread: Common
• Host plants: Asteraceae

Information

The Coleophora trochilella is a small moth of the Coleophoridae family with a wingspan of 11-15 mm.
It is widespread in most of Europe with the exception of Portugal on the Balkan Peninsula, Ukraine and Belarus. In Italy it is absent from Sicily. *

The front wings have an ocher / brown background color, white streaks are visible along the wing. The costa is white, the apex is edged in the background color. The edges are strongly fringed in brown ocher. The hind wings are ocher / brown, strongly fringed, almost "feathered".
The antennae are thread-like dotted in thin lines of ocher and white. The head, thorax and shoulder are light brown.

It is one of the many species of the genus Coleophora striate which are best separated from each other by dissection of the genitals, in fact this species is very similar if not identical to Coleophora follicularis , previously they were considered a single species, [from this the term cf. or cf. before the name which is an abbreviation, frequently used in Italian, for the Latin word "CONFER" (singular imperative of the verb "conferre") in the meaning of "compare"], and therefore, also in this case the cfr. is a must .

The preferred habitats are lean, low and scrub meadows, where adults fly in the months of June and July. Often attracted by artificial light. It is thought, wintering at the stage of larva, in the typical case of the genus, on the underside of the leaves of the host plants. The box of about 10 mm has an elongated shape flattened towards the apex, light brown in color with the mouth placed at 45-60 ° **

The larvae feed on Asteraceae species: Achillea millefolium, Artemisia absinthium, Artemisia vulgaris, Eupatorium cannabinum, Pulicaria dysenterica, Tanacetum vulgare and Chrysanthemum leucantheum.


* Lepidoptera mundi https://lepidoptera.eu/ - Fauna Europea https://fauna-eu.org/
** Plant Parasites of Europe - https://bladmineerders.nl/