Coleophora cf. serinipennella

• Subfamily:
• Wingspan: 14-17 mm
• Flight period: Jun - Aug
• Spread: Common
• Host plants: Atriplex - Halimione - Chenopodium

Information

The Coleophora serinipennella is a small moth of the Coleophoridae family, with a wingspan of 14-17 mm.
In Europe it is visible in Portugal, Spain, France, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and southern European Russia. In Italy it is also present in Sicily. * The Coleophora serinipennella is also visible in North Africa, in the Near East, in the eastern Palearctic (including Japan), as well as in Australia in southwestern Queensland, in southern Australia and in the arid areas of western Australia south of Carnarvon. **

The front wings have a light ocher background color in the basal region to fade into light ocher in the apical area white streaks are visible along the wing. The costa is translucent white, except in the region near the apex where it becomes ocher. The edges are strongly fringed in ocher. Almost always two small dark spots are visible along the anal vein, in corresponding to the discal and postdiscal region. The hind wings are translucent white, strongly fringed, (feathered) in light ocher.
The antennas are filiform dotted in thin lines of ocher and white, except the initial part, where there is a thick down in ocher.

The certainty of the species is possible only with the dissection of the genitals, and therefore the cf. is a must .

Adults are visible in the period between June and August. ***
The larva lives solitary in a surface of about 28-30 mm with a diameter of about 8-10 mm. The entire chamber inside the gall is lined with silk. The galls are visible from August.

The larvae feed on Atriplex glauca, halimus, mollis; Halimione portulacoides, Chenopodium species.


* Lepidoptera mundi https://lepidoptera.eu/ - Fauna Europea https://fauna-eu.org/
** Baldizzone, Giorgio (1996). "A taxonomic review of the Coleophoridae (Lepidoptera) of Australia. Contribution to the knowledge of the Coleophoridae, LXXXV". Tijdschrift voor entomologie. 139. Retrieved 10 August 2020 – via Biodiversity Library.
***Vasily Victorovich Anikin (31 March 1998). "The Casebearers of the Volga-Ural inter-river region (Lepidoptera, Coleophoridae)"