C. deauratella is a small moth with a wingspan of 11-13 mm (Gustafsson, 2010;UKMoths, 2018a). The adult moths are described as 9.5-15.5 mm by Landry (1991), about 9 mm long by PNWHandbooks (2018), and 10.5-12.5 mm by British Lepidoptera (2018).
Related invasive species
- Coleophora deauratella
Related Farm Practice
- Damage
Coleophora deauratella is a moth species native to Europe, eastern Siberia and the Middle East.
White eggs are laid on the calyx of the florets and hatch into larvae that chew into unopened florets of T. pratense to feed (Landry, 1991;Yoder and Otani, 2007). As they feed, they bore into adjacent florets, damaging the reproductive structures and available nectary (Landry, 1991;Ellis and Bjørnson, 1996;Yoder and Otani, 2007). The damage they cause can be seen by pulling apart the inflorescences and looking for 2-3 mm diameter holes at the base or calyx of individual florets.
Although C. deauratella larvae feed on both Trifolium pratense and T. hybridum in Canada, there have been no reports of damage from T. hybridum seed crop fields (Yoder and Otani, 2007).