''Digitivalva pulicariae'' is a moth of the family

Acrolepiidae The Acrolepiidae are a family of moths known as false diamondback moths. In modern classifications, they are often treated as a subfamily (Acrolepiinae) of the family Glyphipterigidae. Caterpillars are typically spotted and 10 to 12 mm in l ...

. It is found in most of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, except

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, Fennoscandia, the Baltic region and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan o ...

is about 13 mm. Adults are on wing from August to, after overwintering, May of the following year. The larvae feed on ''

Pulicaria dysenterica ''Pulicaria dysenterica'', the common fleabane, or, in North America, meadow false fleabane, is a species of fleabane in the family Asteraceae. It is native to Europe and western Asia where it grows in a variety of habitats ranging from semi-ari ...

''. They

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

the leaves of their host plant. The mine initially has the form of a short corridor that starts at the midrib or the leaf base. It later becomes a whitish or brownish full depth blotch. The

frass Frass refers loosely to the more or less solid excreta of insects, and to certain other related matter. Definition and etymology ''Frass'' is an informal term and accordingly it is variously used and variously defined. It is derived from the ...

is deposited in irregularly dispersed grains. A single larva creates several mines. Pupation takes place outside of the mine in a reticulate cocoon, under a leaf or among litter. The larvae are yellowish green with a brown head. They can be found from June to July.

References

Acrolepiidae Moths described in 1956 Moths of Europe Moths of Asia {{Yponomeutoidea-stub