Eudonia lacustrata

• Subfamily: Scopariinae
• Wingspan: 15-20 mm
• Flight period: Jul - Aug
• Spread: Common
• Host plants: Mosses

Information

The Eudonia lacustrata also called Little Grey is a moth of the Crambidae family, Scopariinae subfamily, with a wingspan of 15-20 mm.
In Europe it is very widespread in fact we find it practically everywhere except in Ukraine. *
It can also be found in northwestern Africa, Asia from Turkey via Iran and Syria, in Siberia as far as the western part of China.

The front wing is whitish in color divided by two greenish gray lines. The first in the basal region slightly edged in white towards the inside. The second in the post discal region, serrated and edged in white towards the outside.
These lines divide the wing into three areas, the two external ones strongly sprinkled with greyish green scales, while the central one, lighter but equally with the presence of greyish green scales, can be used to identify the species.
In the median area, the scales form a patch with one or two empty spaces inside. The wings are fringed in white, with a gray checkered pattern at the base of the fringes.
The hind wings are whitish with slight brown shades along the veins and the edge. They too are fringed in white with the same, less intense pattern compared to the fore wings, at the base of the fringes.

Head, thorax and abdomen are whitish in color; the palps are whitish above, dark grayish green on the sides.

It can sometimes be confused with the clear version of Eudonia mercurella , a species that has slightly narrower and more pointed front wings, and with the subterminal line not interrupted. Habitats are varied such as gardens, pastures, woods, moors and swamps

The larvae usually feed on mosses on tree walls or trunks.


* Lepidoptera mundi https://lepidoptera.eu/ - Fauna Europea https://fauna-eu.org/