Morley's Final Catalogue: Pistol-shaped larval-cases often frequent on sallow in marshes. Bentley Woods in both 1894 and 1901 (Pyett); Aldeburgh (Ctw). Bred from Monks-park Wood (Mly); Worlington in 1925 and Ipswich in 1936 (Whit).

Recent Status: Few Suffolk records.

Life Style: A single brooded species that flies in June and July. The larvae feed on Crataegus, Malus, Pyrus, Prunus, Sorbus or Tilia. Clearly the Morley comments refer to C. albidella which feed on Salix species. They pupate on a leaf or stem.

Identification: There are seven members of the albidella group of Coleophora of which six are very similar and difficult to identify. C. anatipennella, C. albidella, C. kuehnella, C. ibipennella, C. betulella and C. currucipennella all have white forewings, thorax and head and a prominent white scale tuft on the antennal scape. There are minor differences in wing colour. The genitalia are all very similar and they all, except for C. kuehnella, have similar pistol shaped cases. However they have different foodplants.
C. anatipennella forewings have a peppering of black or dark fuscous scales on the costal half and a fine dark base to the costa. More Info

The larvae initially mine a leaf and construct a small case before hibernation. At the mining stage they pepper a leaf with small blotches. After hibernation they may also eat holes in the leaves and construct their case typical of the group. In the later instars they become grazers of leaves from their portable case.

	Determination by Genitalia Examination (gen. det.) Required

Recorded in 16 (28%) of 58 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1931. Last Recorded in 2025. Additional Stats

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