Coleophora ahenella is a moth

Moth

A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

 of the Coleophoridae

Coleophoridae

| name = Case-bearers| image = Coleophoridae-01 .jpg| image_width = 240px| image_caption = Adult of an unidentified case-bearer species| regnum = Animalia| phylum = Arthropoda| classis = Insecta| ordo = Lepidoptera| superfamilia = Gelechioidea...

 family. It is found in all 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...

, except Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 and the Balkan Peninsula

Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....

.

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 about 12 mm. Adults are unicolorous grey with a slight sheen. They are on wing in May and June.

The larvae feed on Cornus mas, Cornus sanguinea, Lonicera alpigena

Lonicera alpigena

Alpine Honeysuckle is a species of honeysuckle native to mountain forests of Central and Southern Europe. It is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental plant outside its native range. It is a deciduous shrub up to 2 m high, and in late summer, bears conspicuous brilliant red inedible fruits...

, Lonicera nigra, Lonicera xylosteum

Lonicera xylosteum

Lonicera xylosteum, commonly known as Fly honeysuckle, European Fly Honeysuckle, Dwarf Honeysuckle or Fly Woodbine is a deciduous shrub. It is one of two honeysuckles native to Britain, the other being the Common Honeysuckle ....

, Lonicera chrysantha, Rhamnus catharticus, Rhamnus frangula

Rhamnus frangula

Frangula alnus, syn. Rhamnus frangula, the Alder Buckthorn, is a tall deciduous shrub in the family Rhamnaceae. It is native to Europe, northernmost Africa, and western Asia, from Ireland and Great Britain north to 68°N in Scandinavia, east to central Siberia and Xinjiang in western China, and...

, Symphoricarpos albus

Symphoricarpos albus

Symphoricarpos albus is a species of flowering plant in the honeysuckle family known by the common name common snowberry. It is native to North America, where it occurs across much of Canada and the northern United States. It grows in shady and moist mountain and forest habitat, in woodlands and on...

and Viburnum lantana

Viburnum lantana

Viburnum lantana is a species of Viburnum, native to central, southern and western Europe , northwest Africa, and southwestern Asia. The vigorous deciduous european treelike shrub is common along waysides. It is a deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 4-5 m tall...

. They create a lobe case of about 7 mm long. The mouth angle is 0°, causing the case to lie flat on the leaf. The case is gradually enlarged by the addition of rings that are cut out of the lower epidermis of the mine. In Great Britain, the larvae live for two years.