Denisia subaquilea
Denisia subaquilea
Adult • Rough Knowe, Selkirkshire • © Malcolm Lindsay

28.007 BF635

Denisia subaquilea

(Stainton, 1849)


Wingspan c.12-14mm.

This upland species occurs on high moorland and heaths, mainly in northern England and Scotland, where it is fairly widely distributed but hard to find. It also occurs on sea cliffs in Devon and Cornwall.

The larva feeds on bilberry, spinning the leaves together with silk and consuming the parenchyma causing skeletonisaton of the leaves.

Adult moths fly from late May to July,

The specimen illustrated from Selkirkshire is a female, but has an atypically light peach-brown colour; females are normally much duller brown.
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