Arenostola phragmitidis (Hübner, [1803])

Host plants:
The caterpillars develop in reed stems (Phragmites australis).

Habitat:
Arenostola phragmitidis inhabits reeds of all kinds from the coast to open wet forests.

Life cycle:
The egg hibernates. The caterpillars are mature in late May or early June. They live within the stems, but change them from time to time (even during daytime). The damage is similar to Archanara species with wilting of the inner, younger leaves of the reed. But this gets striking often not until the larva has left the stem. The drilling holes can be located on the whole stem without preference e.g. for nodalities as it is the case with Sesamia nonagrioides. Pupation takes not place in living stems, but in a light webbing at the ground in the litter or there in dead reed stems.

Endangerment factors:
Arenostola phragmitidis is locally endangered due to the destruction of reeds. But at the moment it is quite common e.g. in northern Germany. I found it in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in late May and early June 2013 whereever I searched for it.

Remarks:
Arenostola phragmitidis occurs from central and northern France and southern England across more northern parts of Central Europe (to southern parts of Scandinavia in the north) to Russia and to the Balkans. The moth is also found in parts of temperate Asia to the Pacific.