Anerastia lotella is a species of snout moths

Pyralidae

The Pyralidae or snout moths are a family of Lepidoptera in the ditrysian superfamily Pyraloidea. In many classifications, the grass moths are included in the Pyralidae as a subfamily, making the combined group one of the largest families in the Lepidoptera...

 in the genus Anerastia

Anerastia

Anerastia is a genus of snout moths. It was described by Hübner, in 1825, and is known from Egypt, Sudan.-Species:* Anerastia dubia Gerasimov, 1929* Anerastia flaveolella Ragonot, 1887* Anerastia gnathosella...

. It was described by Gerasimov in 1929. It is found in most of Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, western Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, Asia Minor

Asia Minor

Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...

, Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

 and western Turkestan

Turkestan

Turkestan, spelled also as Turkistan, literally means "Land of the Turks".The term Turkestan is of Persian origin and has never been in use to denote a single nation. It was first used by Persian geographers to describe the place of Turkish peoples...

. It has also been recorded from most of Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

.

The wingspan

Wingspan

The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

 is 19-27 mm. Adults are on wing in July.

The larvae feed on various Poaceae

Poaceae

The Poaceae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called grasses, although the term "grass" is also applied to plants that are not in the Poaceae lineage, including the rushes and sedges...

 species, including Ammophila arenaria

Ammophila arenaria

Ammophila arenaria is a species of grass known by the common names European Marram Grass and European Beachgrass. It is one of two species of the genus Ammophila . It is native to the coastlines of Europe and North Africa where it grows in the sands of beach dunes. It is a perennial grass forming...

, Corynephorus canescens and Festuca ovina. They construct a silken gallery around the stem base and roots of their host plant. Larvae are mainly found in May and June and it is thought the species overwinters in the larval stage. Pupation takes place in a silken cocoon in the soil near the food plant.