drawing by John Curtis, listed as Adela frischella,
British Entomology, 1833, Plate 463,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

The adult moths are actually black, but have a yellow metallic sheen., except that the forewing tips are actually yellow. The moths have a wingspan of about 1 cm. Their antennae also each have a length of about 1 cm.

The species occurs in the northern hemisphere, including

as well as in Australia in

The species is thought to have been introduced into Australia accidentally. However, the moth is superficially similar to the deliberately introduced species Coleophora alcyonipennella, and is most easily distingished by noting that the antennae are about as long as the forewings in Coleophora frischella. whereas the antennae are notably shorter than the forewings in Coleophora alcyonipennella.

Further reading :

John Curtis,
British Entomology,
Volume 6 (1833), p. 463.

Carl Linnaeus,
Insecta Lepidoptera,
Systema Naturae,
Volume 1, Edition 10 (1760), Class 5, Part 3, p. 541, No. 289.

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(updated 17 October 2013, 27 January 2025)