Leaf-mine: The larvae feed on a range of grasses, causing whitish mines on the blades (UKMoths). Flat, translucent mine that can either run or down; the width may vary too, can be as wide as the blade. Frass few, grey, dispersed. The larva makes several mines (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Larva: Dirty yellow, grey green above; head brown; prothoracic plate brown with a narrow spit (Bland, 1996a) (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Pupa: Details unknown.

Adult: The adult is illustrated in UKMoths. The male and female genitalia are illustrated by the Lepidoptera Dissection Group.

Comments: Festuca arundinacea is treated as Schedonorus arundinacea (Tall Fescue) by Stace (2010).

Hosts in Britain:

Hosts elsewhere:

Time of year - larvae: Early spring (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Time of year - adults: Unknown.

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: Occurs widely throughout the British Isles (UKMoths) including Northern Ireland (Karsholt and van Nieukerken in Fauna Europaea) and is fairly common (UKMoths) including Anglesey, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Caernarvonshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, East Cornwall, East Gloucestershire, East Kent, East Norfolk, East Suffolk, East Sussex, Flintshire, Glamorgan, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Kincardine, Merionethshire, Middlesex, Montgomeryshire, North Aberdeen, North Ebudes, North Essex, North Hampshire, North Somerset, North Wiltshire, Shropshire, South Aberdeen, South Hampshire, South Lancaster, South Wiltshire, South-west Yorkshire, Stafford, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Cornwall, West Gloucestershire, 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).

Also recored from the Republic of 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, Danish mainland, European Turkey, French mainland, Germany, Greek mainland, Hungary, Italian mainland, Norwegian mainland, Poland, Romania, Slovakia 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.