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Leaf-miner: 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: The larvae of moths have a head capsule and chewing mouthparts with opposable mandibles (see video of a gracillarid larva feeding), six thoracic legs and abdominal legs (see examples).

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: The pupae of moths have visible head appendages, wings and legs which lie in sheaths (see examples).

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

Adult: The adult is illustrated in UKMoths. The species is included in mothdissection.co.uk.

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 Great Britain and Ireland:

Asteraceae
? Aster	tripolium	Sea Aster		British leafminers
Chenopodiaceae
? Atriplex	littoralis	Grass-leaved Orache		British leafminers
Atriplex	portulacoides	Sea-purslane		British leafminers
Atriplex	portulacoides	Sea-purslane		Pitkin & Plant
Atriplex	portulacoides	Sea-purslane		UKMoths
? Salicornia	europaea	Common Glasswort		British leafminers
Plantaginaceae
? Plantago	coronopus	Buck's-horn Plantain		British leafminers

Hosts elsewhere:

Chenopodiaceae
Atriplex	halimus	Shrubby Orache		Bladmineerders van Europa
Atriplex	portulacoides	Sea-purslane		Bladmineerders van Europa

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, Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire, Dorset, East Cornwall, East Kent, East Suffolk, East Sussex, Flintshire, Glamorgan, Isle of Wight, Kincardinshire, North Essex, North Northumberland, South Essex, South Hampshire, South-east Yorkshire, West Cornwall, West Kent, West Lancashire, West Norfolk, Westmorland and Shetland (NBN Atlas) and the Channel Is. (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 (Fauna Europaea and National Biodiversity Data Centre Map).

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 (Fauna Europaea).

NBN Atlas links to known host species:

British and Irish Parasitoids in Britain and elsewhere: