Leaf-mine: The larva creates a long narrow mine in the blade (UKMoths).

Mine fairly translucent. It starts as a narrow corridor, running towards the leaf tip, but this almost invariably is overrun be a later, broad, descending corridor. The centre of the mine contains a vertical tube made of loose silk, in which the larva can quickly move up or down, and in which also most frass gets trapped. The sides of the mine are smooth (contrary to E. gangabella). Mines are difficult to find, because the leaves are wilting when larvae are present (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Larva: Dark olive green (greyish black while hibernating). Head and prothoracic plate black. Each thorax segment dorsally with a pair of roundish or crescent shaped light spots (Steuer, 1973a) (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Pupa: See Patocka (1999a), Patocka and Turcani (2005a) (Bladmineerders van Europa).

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.

Adult of Elachista subalbidella Luffenham Heath Golf Course, Rutland, Leics. Image: © Andy Mackay (UKMoths)

Hosts in Britain:

Hosts elsewhere:

Time of year - larvae: Larvae in autumn; in October they are full grown, but they leave their mine only just before pupation, in early spring (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Time of year - adults: The adults tend to fly during June (UKMoths).

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: Widely distributed on moors and heaths over much of Britain (UKMoths) including Caernarvonshire, Glamorgan, Merionethshire, Monmouthshire, North Ebudes, Pembrokeshire, Shropshire, South Wiltshire, Stafford and Westmorland (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) and Northern Ireland (Karsholt and van Nieukerken in Fauna Europaea).

Also recorded in the Republic of 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 incuding Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Danish mainland, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greek mainland, Hungary, Italian mainland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norwegian mainland, Poland, Romania, Russia Central, North and Northwest, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and The Netherlands (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.