Calybites phasianipennella 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 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...

 and most of Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

.
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 10-11 mm. Adults are on wing in September and overwinters as an adult, after which it can be found to April or May.

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 Chenopodium hybridum, Fallopia aubertii, Fallopia convolvulus, Lysimachia vulgaris

Lysimachia vulgaris

Lysimachia vulgaris is a species of herbaceous perennial plants in the genus Lysimachia native to wetlands, damp meadows and forests of Eurasia. It is a 50-150 cm tall plant with an upright habit, blooming from June through August with erect panicles of conspicuous yellow flowers. L...

, Lythrum salicaria, Oxyria digyna

Oxyria digyna

Oxyria digyna a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family. It is common in the tundra of Arctic...

, Persicaria amphibia

Persicaria amphibia

Persicaria amphibia is a species of flowering plant in the knotweed family known by several common names, including water knotweed, water smartweed, and amphibious bistort. It is native to much of North America and Eurasia, but it is known on most continents as an introduced species and sometimes...

, Persicaria hydropiper, Persicaria lapathifolia, Persicaria maculosa, Rumex acetosa, Rumex acetosella

Rumex acetosella

Rumex acetosella is a species of sorrel, also known as Acetosella vulgaris Fourr, bearing the common names sheep's sorrel, red sorrel, sour weed, and field sorrel. The plant and its subspecies are common perennial weeds. It has green arrowhead-shaped leaves and red-tinted deeply ridged stems, and...

, Rumex aquaticus, Rumex hydrolapathum

Rumex hydrolapathum

Rumex hydrolapathum Huds. is a species of perennial herbaceous plants in the genus Rumex native to fens and freshwater banks of Europe and Western Asia...

and Rumex obtusifolius

Rumex obtusifolius

Rumex obtusifolius, commonly known as Broad-leaved Dock, Bitter Dock, Bluntleaf Dock, Dock Leaf or Butter Dock, is a perennial weed, native to Europe but can now be found in the United States and many other countries around the world....

. 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 as a epidermal corridor, later it becomes a pale and later brown, usually lower-surface blotch that may obliterate the initial corridor. The silk at the inside of the mine causes it to buckle and fold. The frass

Frass

Frass is the fine powdery material phytophagous insects pass as waste after digesting plant parts. It causes plants to excrete chitinase due to high chitin levels, it is a natural bloom stimulant, and has high nutrient levels. Frass is known to have abundant amoeba, beneficial bacteria, and fungi...

is deposited in a corner of the mine. Older larvae leave the mine and continue feeding inside a cone, made by cutting off a strip of leaf tissue and binding it with silk.