35.074 BF744a

Monochroa moyses

Uffen, 1991

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Wing span 8 - 9mm.

A very local species (Nationally Scarce A), restricted to the edges of saltmarshes, brackish ponds and ditches in coastal areas from Hampshire to Suffolk.

It is single-brooded, the adults on the wing in June and July and the larvae mining the leaves of Sea Club-rush (Bulboschoenus maritimus).

This is the smallest of the Monochroa species with grey, rather plain forewings and a single black discal spot. Dissection is usually required to rule out the superficially similar species M. hornigi and M. arundinetella.

One of very few British species that has a scientific name derived from a biblical source (from Moses, "drawn out of the water", as the mine-bearing leaves are).