Appearance
The wingspan is 16–23 mm. The adult moths fly from May to July, depending on the location. The supposed species "H. aurotaenialis" is included here pending further study.
Food
The caterpillars feed on dry vegetable matter. They have been found in haystacks or thatching, as well as in chicken and magpie nests. The caterpillar is injurious to clover hay, and to other hay when mixed with clover. Its depredations can be prevented by keeping the hay dry and well ventilated, as the insect preferably breeds in moist or matted material such as is to be found in the lower parts of haystacks, where affected hay becomes filled with webbings of the caterpillars and their excrement, rendering it unfit for feeding. A treatment is to burn the webbed material and to thoroughly clean the affected location.References:
Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.
