''Cosmopterix orichalcea'' is a
moth of the family
Cosmopterigidae. It is known from most of Europe (except the
Balkan Peninsula
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
) east to
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
.
The
wingspan is about 9 mm. The antennae with apex and two subapical rings white. Forewings black; a large brassy-metallic basal patch, edge very oblique; a broad orange fascia beyond middle, narrowed dorsally, edged with black scales and then with narrow violet-golden-metallic fasciae; a bluish-silvery-metallic sometimes interrupted streak along upper. The larva is pale yellow; dorsal line greenish; head black plate of 2 black, bisected.
Adults are on wing from August to May. Then the larva hibernates outside of the mine in a
hibernaculum.
The larvae feed on ''
Anthoxanthum odoratum'', ''
Festuca arundinacea'', ''
Hierochloe odorata'', ''
Milium'' species, ''
Phalaris arundinacea'' and ''
Phragmites australis''. They
mine the leaves of their host plant.
References
orichalcea
Moths of Asia
Moths of Europe
Moths described in 1861
{{Cosmopterix-stub