| Common Grass-veneer (Agriphila tristella (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775)) |
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Scientific name: Agriphila tristella (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775) Common name: Common Grass-veneer French name: Crambus des tiges Order: Lepidoptera Suborder: Heterocera Family: Crambidae Subfamily: Crambinae Wingspan: 22-30 mm. Biotope: Meadows, waste lands, heathlands, gardens. Geographic area: Europe and western Asia. Flight time: June to September. Number of generations : 1 Caterpillar: Caterpillars grow in the base of the stems of the host plants. Host plant: Tufted Hair-grass (Deschampsia cespitosa), True Grasses (Poaceae or Gramineae). |
Crambidae moths show protruding forwards labial palps whose length is at least twice the length of the head. The Common Grass-veneer has straw coloured to dark brown fore wings with a white or pale yellow longitudinal mark. The ground colour has usually a grainy look with a light dusting of darker scales. The longitudinal stripe tapers at about mi length of the wing and then divides into four yellowish lines. The similar species Agriphila selasella shows a more uniform ground colour. The white stripe is longer and brighter. It divides into two lines towards the wing margin. I have read that the outer margin is more square-shaped on Agriphila selasella than on Agriphila tristella but I have not been able to observe this difference. |
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The ground colour is grainy with a dusting of dark scales. |
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The rather short white stripe clearly tapering at mid length of the wing indicates the Common Grass-veneer species. |
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I am not enough experienced to evaluate the criterion based on the shape of the external margin. The grainy look and the shape of the white stripe are the two criteria that I have used here to tell the species apart. |
André Bon July 2017