Leaf-mine: When young, the larva mines mainly the leaves or the stem of Sparganium or Nuphar lutea. It hibernates. Later it lives amongst spun leaves just below the surface of the water. Pupation in a white silk cocoon attached to the foodplant at or just below the water-level (Belgian Lepidoptera).

Long narrow corridor, on or alongside the midrib. The corridor may descend below the water surface, and does contain frass. After some time the larva cuts itself a case out of the mine, and continues living free, partly under water (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Larva: Yellowish, with a brown dorsal line and a brown head (Hering, 1957a) (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Pupa: Details unknown.

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

Hosts in Britain:

Hosts elsewhere:

Time of year - larvae: From August up to May the next year (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Time of year - adults: On the wing during July and August. It flies in the evening and at night, and comes readily to light (UKMoths).

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: Found fairly commonly around lakes, rivers and ponds throughout Britain (UKMoths) including, Anglesey, Bedfordshire, Brecon, Buckinghamshire, Caernarvonshire, Cambridgeshire, Carmarthenshire, Cheshire, Cumberland, Derbyshire, Dorset, East Cornwall, East Gloucestershire, East Kent, East Norfolk, East Suffolk, Easterness, Glamorgan, Herefordshire, Huntingdonshire, Middlesex, Monmouthshire, Montgomeryshire, North Aberdeen, North Essex, North Somerset, North Wiltshire, Pembrokeshire, Renfrewshire, Shropshire, South Devon, South Essex, South Hampshire, South Lancaster, South Wiltshire, Stafford, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Gloucestershire, West Lancaster, 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. (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 including Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Danish mainland, Estonia, Finland, French mainland, Germany, Gibraltar, Italian mainland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Republic of Moldova, Norwegian mainland, Poland, Romania, Russia - Central and North, Sicily, 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: Unknown.