The moth Sclerocona acutella (Thatch Pearl Moth) is a moth whose larvae feed on the roots of the Common Reed (Phragmites australis). The adult, known in England as the Thatch Pearl Moth, is about 22-25 mm across. The wings are light brown, with conspicuous, nearly parallel veins. Sclerocona acutella is native to Eurasia, from Spain and Sicily and recently spreading to Great Britain and Denmark (rare), and east to Siberia, Japan, and China. In 1984, S. acutella was first collected in North America, in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, near Buzzards Bay. Since then, it has been collected in many locations in inland and coastal locations in northeastern North America, from Virginia to Maine, and along Lakes Ontario and Erie. The range of collection sites in northeastern North America, including inland and coastal freshwater marshes and swamps, and brackish-to-salt marshes, suggests that S. acutella develops successfully in fresh to meso- or polyhaline salinities, and could colonize much of the present range of Phragmites australis. We have not found much information on the biology of the larvae, but they inhabit a wet, low-oxygen habitat of varying salinity. We have no information about the impacts of this moth on the growth or spread of the invasive form of Phragmites australis.