Leaf-mine: The larvae feed among the needles, mining when small, and later in an untidy spinning (UKMoths).

The larva completely mines a group of c. 15 needles. The larva penetrates the base of the needles. Most frass is deposited outside the mines. The mined needles are surrounded by a light spinning, especially around their bases and therefore do not drop quickly. Pupation external (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Larva: Larva light brown or dirty white with two reddish brown subrosal lines. Head and pronotum dark brown, anal plate greyish brown. Prolegs with c. 20 crochets in a single row (Bradley et al., 1979a; Swatschek, 1958a) (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Pupa: Details unknown.

Adult: The adult is illustrated in UKMoths and the Encyclopedia of Life. 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: August - October; hibernation as a full fed larva (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Time of year - adults: The moths fly in May and June and are attracted to light (UKMoths).

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: Occupying woodland, the species is fairly common throughout the British Isles (UKMoths) including Anglesey, Bedfordshire, Caernarvonshire, Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, East Cornwall, East Norfolk, East Ross, East Suffolk, East Sutherland, Easterness, Elgin, Glamorgan, Herefordshire, Kincardine, Merionethshire, Montgomeryshire, North Aberdeen, North Essex, North Somerset, North Wiltshire, Northumberland South, Shropshire, South Aberdeen, South Wiltshire, Stafford, Surrey, 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) and 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 Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Danish mainland, Estonia, Finland, French mainland, Germany, Greek mainland, Hungary, Italian mainland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norwegian mainland, Poland, Romania, Russia - Central, North and Northwest, Slovakia, Slovenia, 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: