- Subfamily: Crambinae
- Wingspan: 20-26 mm
- Flight period: Jul - Oct
- Host plants: Poaceae
The Agriphila geniculea also called the elbow-striped grass-veneeris a moth of the Crambidae family, subfamily Crambinae, with a wingspan of 20-26 mm.
It is visible in most of Europe, with the exception of Finland, Russia, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Albania, Kosovo and Moldova. In Italy it is also present in the islands. *
The front wing is cream colored with more or less intense brown dusting, two narrow bands of brown with a curvilinear pattern they cross the wing in the discal and post discal regions, the outermost edged in off-white toward the edge. The wing margin is silver, metallic. A series of black dots are visible along the edge. The wings are fringed.
The hind wings are white in color, with subtle light brown shades towards the edge. They too are fringed.
Very similar to the congener Agriphila tolli but it is distinguished from the latter by the length of the palps, which are longer in Agriphila geniculea , and for the distance of the traversal lines which is shorter in Agriphila geniculea , as can be seen in the last photo published. The species is monovoltine and flies at sunset from July to October depending on the location. When disturbed they are visible even during the day. The larvae can be found from late September to early May, it is therefore deduced that they overwinter at the larva stage. They live in silky tunnels, at the base of the host plants. Sometimes they leave these tunnels and curl up tightly in a spiral at the bases of the stems of the host plants. **
The larvae feed on Poaceae such as stems of Festuca ovina and various other herbs
* Lepidoptera mundi https://lepidoptera.eu/ - Fauna Europea https://fauna-eu.org/
** Online guide to the moths of Great Britain and Ireland https://ukmoths.org.uk/