Leaf-mine: A circular or oval brownish blotch with a central spiral of dense blackish frass (British leafminers), sometimes several mines in one leaf (UKMoths).

Oviposition is at the leaf underside, well away from the leaf margin; the egg has a fine reticulate surface. The mine is a rather large, perfectly circular blotch without a trace of a preceeding corridor. Around the dark centre the frass, glued to the upper epidermis is arranged in distinct arcs (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Larva: The larva is pale green with a dark head (British leafminers).

The larva is also illustrated in UKMoths and Bladmineerders van Europa.

Pupa: Pupation in a silken cocoon, usually on detritus (British leafminers). Described by Patocka (2000a) (Bladmineerders van Europa) and illustrated in the Encyclopedia of Life.

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

Hosts in Britain:

Hosts elsewhere:

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

Time of year - adults: The adult moths fly in June and July (UKMoths).

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: Widespread in England and into southern Scotland including Anglesey, Bedfordshire, Caernarvonshire, Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, East Kent, East Norfolk, East Suffolk, Flintshire, Glamorgan, Herefordshire, Huntingdonshire, Isle Of Wight, Merionethshire, Montgomeryshire, North Essex, North Hampshire, Nottinghamshire, South Wiltshire, Stafford, Warwickshire, West Gloucestershire, 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.

This species can be rather erratic in its occurrence and can be quite a difficult species to track down. In some years there is a population explosion when it appears commonly, but in between can be quite uncommon (UKMoths).

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 Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Danish mainland, Estonia, European Turkey, Finland, French mainland, Germany, Greek mainland, Hungary, Italian mainland, Kaliningrad Region, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Madeira, Norwegian mainland, Poland, Portuguese mainland, Romania, Russia - Central, East and Northwest, Slovakia, Spanish mainland, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Ukraine and Yugoslavia (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: