Leaf-mine: The larva mines in a birch leaf, forming a large blotch (UKMoths) starting at or near the leaf edge and then widens into a blotch (British leafminers).

Oviposition a few mm from the leaf margin; here begins a corridor of some mm, filled with granular frass. This corridor suddenly widens into a large full depth white bloth, with frass in long threads. The blotch remains adjacent to the leaf margin, and often engulfs the initial corridor. Almost always one larva in the mine (unless by coalescence of two mines). Pupation external. Older mines wither and desintegrate, and cannot be found later in the summer (Bladmineerders van Europa).

The mine is also illustrated in the Encyclopedia of Life.

Larva: The larvae are white or yellowish (UKMoths) and is illustrated in Bladmineerders van Europa and the Encyclopedia of Life.

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: April - May (British leafminers).

Time of year - adults: The adults fly in March and April, especially in sunshine (UKMoths).

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: The commonest and most widespread of the Eriocrania species that feed on birch, occurring throughout most of Britain (UKMoths) including Banff, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Caernarvonshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cumberland, Denbighshire, Dorset, East Cornwall, East Kent, East Suffolk, East Sutherland, Glamorgan, Kincardine, Merionethshire, North Aberdeen, North Essex, North Hampshire, North Somerset, Shropshire, South Aberdeen, South Essex, South Lancaster, South Wiltshire, Stafford, Surrey, Warwickshire, 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). See also British leafminers distribution map.

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 including Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Czech Republic, Danish mainland, Estonia, Finland, French mainland, Germany, Greek mainland, Hungary, Italian mainland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norwegian mainland, Poland, Romania, Russia - Central, North and South, Slovakia, Spanish mainland, 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: