Apple Leaf Skeletonizer - Choreutis pariana

Wingspan 11 to 15 mm. This moth is bright orangey or reddish brown to greyish brown, often with a wavy dark line near the base of the wing and another near the tip.

The main chosen foodplant is crab-apple (Malus spp.) but other roseaceous trees are sometimes used too.

The moths fly in two generations, firstly in July and then in September, when the species overwinters and may appear again in early spring.

So called because of the larva's habit of eating away tissue from the upper surface of leaves of the foodplant, resulting in a skeleton leaf appearance. The larva lives under a silken web.

Distributed widely over much of Britain, the species can be locally common when it can be a pest; in other locations it is scarce. In the Butterfly Conservation’s Microlepidoptera Report 2011 this species was classified as local.

It appears to be uncommon in Leicestershire and Rutland, where there were less than 10 records as at 2013. L&R Moth Group status = D (rare or rarely recorded).