''Coleophora otidipennella'' is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

of the family

Coleophoridae __NOTOC__ The Coleophoridae are a family of small moths, belonging to the huge superfamily Gelechioidea. Collectively known as case-bearers, casebearing moths or case moths, this family is represented on all continents, but the majority are foun ...

found in Asia and Europe.

Description

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 of ...

is 10–12 mm. ''Coleophora'' species have narrow blunt to pointed forewings and a weakly defined tornus. The hindwings are narrow-elongate and very long-fringed. The upper surfaces have neither a discal spot nor transverse lines. Each abdomen segment of the abdomen has paired patches of tiny spines which show through the scales. The resting position is horizontal with the front end raised and the cilia give the hind tip a frayed and upturned look if the wings are rolled around the body. ''C. otidipennella'' characteristics include greyish appearance streaked with whitish-cream. Adults are on wing from May to June. The larvae feed on the seeds of rushes (''

Luzula ''Luzula'' is a genus of flowering plants in the rush family Juncaceae. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, with species occurring throughout the world, especially in temperate regions, the Arctic, and higher elevation areas in the tropic ...

'' species), including field wood-rush (''

Luzula campestris ''Luzula campestris'', commonly known as field wood-rush, Good Friday grass or sweep's brush is a flowering plant in the rush family Juncaceae. It is a very common plant throughout temperate Europe extending to the Caucasus. This species of ''Lu ...

'') and common woodrush (''

Luzula multiflora ''Luzula multiflora'', the common woodrush or heath wood-rush, is a species of flowering plant in the rush family. It is native to Europe, eastern Asia, northern Africa, northern North America, including Canada, and in northern regions of the ...

''). The larvae form a whitish or yellowish case.

Distribution

It is found in most of Europe, the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

, and the eastern

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

External links

Swedish Moths

UKmoths
otidipennella Moths described in 1817 Moths of Asia Moths of Europe Taxa named by Jacob Hübner {{Coleophoridae-stub