Leaf-mine: A narrow gallery, often following the midrib, occasionally tinged red at the edges. This leads to a yellowish blotch containing dispersed frass (British leafminers).

The oval, iridescent egg is deposited at the upperside of the leaf, mostly close to the midrib. Here starts a gallery, at first narrow and hardly widening, the first cm not always full depth, often making a few loops around the egg and/or running along the midrib for some distance. Parts of the leaf cut off by a corridor loop often turn red. Frass in small, grey grains, dispersed, not glued to floor or ceiling of the mine. Later the larva makes a full depth blotch; mostly in continuation to the corridor, but the larva can also leave the mine and restart elsewhere, which may happen already at this stage. A new mine begins with a hole where tha larva has gained entrance, end ends in an untidy exit. The larva lies venter-upwards in the mine. Pupation external (Bladmineerders van Europa).

The mine is also illustrated in UKMoths.

Larva: The larva is illustrated in Bladmineerders van Europa.

Pupa: On the ground amongst detritus (British leafminers).

Adult: The adult is illustrated in UKMoths and the Encylopedia 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: June - July, September (British leafminers).

Time of year - adults: Two generations in the year, flying during May and again in August (UKMoths).

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: Occurs over much of mainland Britain (UKMoths), including Anglesey, Banff, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Caernarvonshire, Cambridgeshire, Carmarthenshire, Cheshire, Cumberland, Denbighshire, Derbyshire, East Cornwall, East Gloucestershire, East Kent, East Norfolk, East Ross, East Suffolk, East Sussex, East Sutherland, Easterness, Edinburgh, Elgin, Flintshire, Glamorgan, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Kincardine, Leicestershire, Linlithgow, Mid-west Yorkshire, Middlesex, Monmouthshire, North Aberdeen, North Devon, North Essex, North Hampshire, North Somerset, North Wiltshire, North-east Yorkshire, North-west Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Pembrokeshire, Shropshire, South Aberdeen, South Devon, South Essex, South Hampshire, South Lancaster and South Wiltshire (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). See also British leafminers distribution map.

Also recorded 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, Hungary, Italian mainland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norwegian mainland, Poland, Romania, Russia - Central, East, North and Northwest, 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:

Chamerion angustifolium

Parasitoids in Britain and elsewhere: