Leaf-mine: Like related species, the larva mines blades of grass, in this case usually Cock's-foot, forming a thin whitish mine (UKMoths).

The larva begins in autumn the making of a long, narrow, corridor with a fine central line of grey frass. The corridor is straight or lightly wavy, and descends into the leaf sheath, or even into the stem or rootstock. The larva regularly leaves the mine to begin making a new one. Pupation external (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Larva: Pale greenish yellow; head and prothoracic plate light brown; prothoracic plate made up of two narrow elongate sclerites (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Pupa: Details unknown.

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

Hosts in Britain:

Hosts elsewhere:

Time of year - larvae: May (Bladmineerders van Europa)

Time of year - adults: The moths can be found on the wing any time between May and September, and are attracted to light (UKMoths).

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: A fairly common and well distributed grassland species over most of the British Isles (UKMoths) including Anglesey, Banff, Bedfordshire, Caernarvonshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cheviotland, Cumberland, Derbyshire, East Cornwall, East Norfolk, East Suffolk, Easterness, Flintshire, Glamorgan, Kincardine, Merionethshire, North Aberdeen, North Devon, North Ebudes, North Essex, North Hampshire, North Somerset, North Wiltshire, Northumberland South, Pembrokeshire, Shropshire, South Aberdeen, South Lancaster, South Wiltshire, Stafford, Warwickshire, West Cornwall, West Gloucestershire, West Kent, West Norfolk, West Suffolk, Westmorland and Worcestershire (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), the Channel Is. and Ireland (Karsholt and van Nieukerken in Fauna Europaea).

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, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Danish mainland, Estonia, French mainland, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Luxembourg, Norwegian mainland, Poland, Romania, Russia - Central, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Ukraine (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.