Caloptilia stigmatella is a moth

Moth

A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

 of the Gracillariidae

Gracillariidae

Gracillariidae is an important family of insects in the order Lepidoptera and the principal family of leaf miners that includes several economic, horticultural or recently invasive pest species such as the horse-chestnut leaf miner, Cameraria ohridella....

 family. It is known from the Holarctic Region

Holarctic

The Holarctic ecozone refers to the habitats found throughout the northern continents of the world as a whole. This region is divided into the Palearctic, consisting of Northern Africa and all of Eurasia, with the exception of Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent, and the Nearctic,...

, including all of Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 (except the Balkan Peninsula).
The wingspan

Wingspan

The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

 is 12-14 mm. Adults are on wing in late June and July, and again from September onwards.

The larva

Larva

A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...

e feed on Myrica gale

Myrica gale

Myrica gale is a species of flowering plant in the genus Myrica, native to northern and western Europe and parts of northern North America. It is a deciduous shrub growing to 1–2 m tall. Common names include Bog Myrtle and Sweet Gale...

, Populus alba, Populus candicans, Populus canescens, Populus nigra, Populus tremula

Populus tremula

Populus tremula, commonly called aspen, common aspen, Eurasian aspen, European aspen, trembling poplar, or quaking aspen, is a species of poplar native to cool temperate regions of Europe and Asia, from the British Isles east to Kamchatka, north to inside the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia and...

, Salix alba, Salix aurita

Salix aurita

Salix aurita is a species of willow distributed over much of Europe, and occasionally cultivated. It is a shrub to 2.5 m in height, distinguished from the similar but slightly larger Salix cinerea by its reddish petioles and young twigs. It was given its name because of the persistent...

, Salix babylonica, Salix cinerea, Salix dasyclados, Salix elaeagnos, Salix fragilis, Salix glaucosericea, Salix lanata

Salix lanata

Salix lanata, the common name is Wooly Willow, is a species of willow native to tundra regions over much of the Circumboreal Region.-Description:...

, Salix magnifica

Salix magnifica

Salix magnifica is a species of willow in the family Salicaceae. It is endemic to Sichuan in southwestern China, where it grows at high altitudes of 2,100–3,000 m. It is threatened by habitat loss.It is a deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 6 m tall...

, Salix myrsinifolia

Salix myrsinifolia

Salix myrsinifolia is a species of willow native to Europe and Western Siberia. It forms a 2–5 m high shrub. In the north it becomes often a tree up to 8 m tall....

, Salix pentandra, Salix purpurea, Salix repens, Salix sitchensis

Salix sitchensis

Salix sitchensis is a species of willow known by the common name Sitka willow. It is native to northwestern North America from Alaska to northern California to Montana. It is a common to abundant plant in many types of coastal and inland wetland habitat, such as marshes, riverbanks, swamps, coastal...

, Salix spadicea, Salix x stipularis, Salix triandra

Salix triandra

Salix triandra is a species of willow native to Europe and western and central Asia, from southeastern England east to Lake Baikal, and south to Spain and the Caucasus and Alborz mountains...

, Salix udensis

Salix udensis

Salix udensis is a species of willow native to northeastern Asia, in eastern Siberia , northeastern China, and northern Japan....

and Salix viminalis. They mine

Leaf miner

Leaf miner is a term used to describe the larvae of many different species of insect which live in and eat the leaf tissue of plants. The vast majority of leaf-mining insects are moths , sawflies and flies , though some beetles and wasps also exhibit this behavior.Like Woodboring beetles, leaf...

the leaves of their host plant. The mine starts with an unusually long lower-surface epidermal corridor that often follows the midrib for some distance, but finally turns towards the leaf margin, where a small blotch is made. The blotch is initially fully epidermal, but later the larva starts consuming parenchyma, silk is deposited and the blotch begins to develop into a somewhat contracted tentiform mine. Older larvae leave the mine and continue living freely under a leaf fold that has been bound together with silk, or in a leaf tip that has been turned into a cone. Pupation takes place in a shiny cocoon at the underside of the leaf.