Leaf-mine: The mine on Sea purslane can look inflated and the frass is emptied by a round hole in the leaf. The food plant leaves can be spun together (British leafminers).

Larvae in blotch-like mines. Most frass is ejected through a small opening in the mine. Fresh mines are very difficult to find. The larvae can leave their mine and restart elsewhere. Pupation external (Bladmineerders van Europa).

The mine is also illustrated in UKMoths.

Larva: Larva yellowish grey with three reddish brown length lines. Head and prothoracic shield light brown. Anal shield pale to dark brown; thoracic feet blackish (Jansen, 1999a; Bland ea, 2002a) (Bladmineerders van Europa).

The larva is illustrated in UKMoths.

Pupa: Pupation in a mud-covered cocoon on the ground (British leafminers).

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.

Comments: The references to Chenopodium by Hering (1957a) and Elsner et al. (1999a) are probably due to confusion with Scrobipalpa atriplicella (Bland et al., 2002a). Other hostplant associations mentioned in the literature, like Aster tripolium, Atriplex littoralis, Lycium barbarum, Plantago coronopus, Plantago maritima, Salicornia europaea, Salsola and Suaeda probably originated from erroneous identifications (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Hosts in Britain:

Hosts elsewhere:

Time of year - larvae: March - May (British leafminers).

Time of year - adults: May to July (UKMoths).

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: Found around the coasts of England (British leafminers), including Anglesey, Caernarvonshire, Denbighshire, East Cornwall, East Kent, East Suffolk, East Sussex, Glamorgan, North Essex, South Devon, South Essex, South Hampshire, West Cornwall, West Kent, West Norfolk and Westmorland (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). On salt marshes, mudflat and the banks of estuarine rivers (British leafminers). See also British leafminers distribution map.

Also recorded in the Republic of Ireland (Karsholt and van Nieukerken in mainland and The Netherlands (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, Belgium, Canary Is., Cyprus, Danish mainland, French mainland, Germany, Hungary, Italian mainland, Portuguese mainland, Sardinia, Sicily, Spanish mainland 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.