''Epermenia insecurella'', the chalk-hill lance-wing, 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 ...

of the family

Epermeniidae Epermeniidae or the fringe-tufted moths is a family of insects in the lepidopteran order with about 14 genera. Previously they have been divided in two subfamilies Epermeniinae and Ochromolopinae (e.g. Common, 1990: 321) but this is no longer m ...

. It is found in most of Europe,

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...

, the Near East and

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 millio ...

. 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 ...

is 9–11 mm. The moths fly during the day and can be found on the wing in two generations, between May and August The larvae feed on bastard-toadflax (''

Thesium humifusum ''Thesium humifusum'' is a species of hemiparasitic flowering plant in the family Santalaceae found in western Europe and north-western Africa, known as bastard-toadflax. Distribution Within continental Europe, ''Thesium humifusum'' is found thr ...

'') and '' Thesium inophyllon''. They initially

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. Young larvae make a small, full depth, irregular corridor mine. Older larvae live free on the host plant. Larvae can be found from April to June and again in July. They are yellow with a shining black head.

References

Epermeniidae Leaf miners Moths described in 1854 Moths of Asia Moths of Europe Taxa named by Henry Tibbats Stainton {{Epermenioidea-stub