Leaf-mine: Long, narrow, white corridor, descending from close to the leaf tip to the leaf base or even stem. Frass in an inconspicuous grey line. From the stem the larva may enter a new leaf (Steuer, 1987a; Bland, 1996a) (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Larva: Lemon yellow; setae unusually long. Pronotum with two elongate brown spots. also the anal plate has a brown marking. Prolegds with 2-4(5) crochets in a faint, posteriorly concave, arc (Steuer, 1987a) (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Pupa: Described by Patocka (1999a) and Patocka and Turcani (2005a) (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Adult: The adult is illustrated in UKMoths. The genitalia are not illustrated by the Lepidoptera Dissection Group (check for update).

Comments: Festuca gigantea is treated as Schedonorus gigantea (Giant Fescue) and Festuca pratensis is treated as Schedonorus pratensis (Meadow Fescue) by Stace (2010).

Hosts in Britain:

Hosts elsewhere:

Time of year - larvae: Throughout the winter (UKMoths).

Time of year - adults: The adults fly in the evening from June to August and can be disturbed from long grass (UKMoths).

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: Fairly common in grassy habitats and woodland edges throughout the British Isles (UKMoths) including Anglesey, Banff, Bedfordshire, Caernarvonshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Denbighshire, Derbyshire, East Suffolk, Flintshire, Glamorgan, Kincardine, Merionethshire, North Aberdeen, North Essex, North Hampshire, North Somerset, North Wiltshire, North-east Yorkshire, Shropshire, South Aberdeen, South Lancaster, South Wiltshire, Stafford, Warwickshire, West Kent, West Norfolk, West Suffolk, Westmorland and Worcestershire (NBN Gateway - N.B. includes Watsonian Vice Counties having publicly available records that fall within or overlap the vice county border at 10km resolution or better i.e. a record for a vice county may relate to an adjacent vice county - for included datasets see NBN Grid map below) and Ireland (Karsholt and van Nieukerken in Fauna Europaea).

NBN Grid map: Note that not all datasets on the NBN Gateway may be available on the map below. If you are an NBN Gateway registered user you can request access for missing datasets via the link 'Open interactive map in new window' below.

Distribution elsewhere: Widespread in continental Europe including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, French mainland, Germany, Hungary, Italian mainland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norwegian mainland, Poland, Romania, Russia - Central, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and The Netherlands (Karsholt and van Nieukerken in Fauna Europaea).

NBN interactive distribution map(s) of known host species in Great Britain and Ireland and elsewhere:

Parasitoids in Britain and elsewhere: Unknown.