Chilo phragmitellus

• Subfamily: Crambinae
• Wingspan: 25-40 mm
• Flight period: May - Aug
• Spread: Common
• Host plants: Phragmites australis, Glyceria maxima

Information

The Chilo phragmitellus is a moth of the Crambidae family, subfamily Crambinae, with a wingspan of 25-40 mm.
In Europe it is visible almost everywhere except for a large part of the Balkan Peninsula, Slovenia and Moldova. In Italy it is absent from the islands. *

The background color of the front wing varies from brown to very light yellow, with variable spraying of dark scales, at times denser, almost forming a band, in the median area. Always in the median area a dark disc-shaped spot is often visible; the hind wings are white, silky with brown shades along the edge. Both sexes have long labial palps.

The sexual dimorphism of this species is not very evident and characterized by the color, which in the females is lighter and paler, and by the dimensions which, again in the females, are greater. It occupies swamps and other humid environments where there are large reeds . The larvae live inside the stems of the host plant ** where they overwinter, between May and June, depending on the latitude, they turn into pupae.

The larvae feed on Phragmites australis, Glyceria maxima.


* Lepidoptera mundi https://lepidoptera.eu/ - Fauna Europea https://fauna-eu.org/
** Bestimmungshilfe für die in Europa nachgewiesenen Schmetterlingsarten - http://www.lepiforum.de/