Mine of Ectoedemia minimella on Betula pubescens Image: Willem Ellis (Bladmineerders van Europa)

Leaf-mine: The mine begins as a contorted gallery, when the young larva can be seen to have dark plates on each segment. These plates are later lost and the gallery becomes a blotch with scattered frass (UKMoths).

Mine begins at a globular, black, lower-surface egg shell. From there starts a short tortuous corridor, that widens into a blotch, often between to lateral veins. Frass dispersed. Pupation outside the mine (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Larva: Yellow with light brown head, lies belly-up in the mine. Young larvae with a series of 12 black ventral plates (van Nieukerken, 1985a). See Gustafsson and van Nieukerken (1990a) for a description (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Pupa: Details unknown.

Adult: The adult is illustrated in UKMoths. The genitalia are not illustrated by the Lepidoptera Dissection Group (check for update).

Hosts in Britain:

Hosts elsewhere:

Time of year - larvae: July - September (British leafminers; UKMoths).

Time of year - adults: There is one generation, with adults in May and June (UKMoths).

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: A relatively local species occurring in the south and west of England and parts of Scotland (UKMoths) including Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, East Norfolk, East Ross, East Suffolk, East Sutherland, Easterness, Glamorgan, North Aberdeen, North Ebudes, North Essex, North Hampshire, Shropshire, South Aberdeen, South Hampshire, South Lancaster, South Wiltshire, Stafford, West Norfolk and West Suffolk (NBN Gateway - N.B. includes Watsonian Vice Counties having publicly available records that fall within or overlap the vice county border at 10km resolution or better i.e. a record for a vice county may relate to an adjacent vice county - for included datasets see NBN Grid map below). See also British leafminers distribution map.

It also occurs in south-west Ireland (UKMoths).

NBN Grid map: Note that not all datasets on the NBN Gateway may be available on the map below. If you are an NBN Gateway registered user you can request access for missing datasets via the link 'Open interactive map in new window' below.

Distribution elsewhere: Widespread in continental Europe including Austria, Czech Republic, Danish mainland, Estonia, Finland, French mainland, Germany, Italian mainland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norwegian mainland, Poland, Russia - North, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and The Netherlands. Also recorded in the East Palaearctic (Karsholt and van Nieukerken in Fauna Europaea).

NBN interactive distribution map(s) of known host species in Great Britain and Ireland and elsewhere:

Parasitoids in Britain and elsewhere: Unknown.