Botany of this species is encoded by about 135 million base pairs of DNA, forming one of the smallest genomes among flowering plants. "Arabidopsis" was the first plant to have its genome sequenced, in 2000. The sequencing of some other relatively small genomes, of rice ("Oryza sativa") and "Brachypodium distachyon", has made them important model species for understanding the genetics, cellular and molecular biology of cereals, grasses and monocots generally. Model plants such as "Arabidopsis thaliana" are used for studying the molecular biology of plant cells and the chloroplast. Ideally, these organisms have small genomes that are well known or completely
Elasmopalpus brown anterior and distal margins. The larvae feed on a wide range of plants but prefer grasses. Recorded host plants include a number of economically important plants such as "Phaseolus vulgaris", "Beta vulgaris", "Brassica oleracea" var. "capitata", "Cucumis melo", "Cyperus esculentus", "Zea mays", "Vigna unguiculata", "Phaseolus lunatus", "Avena sativa", "Pisum sativum", "Arachis hypogaea", "Capsicum annuum", "Oryza sativa", "Secale cereale", "Sorghum bicolor", "Glycine max", "Sorghum sudanense", "Saccharum officinarum", "Ipomoea batatas", "Lycopersicon esculentum", "Brassica rapa" and "Triticum aestivum". They tunnel into the crown of their host plant, severely weakening large plants and often killing young seedlings. They spin silken tubes near the