Leaf-mine: A gallery with frass partly dispersed, but sometimes in a thin line (as S. alnetella). The moths must be bred through to distinguish between this and S.alnetella (British leafminers).

Oviposition at the leaf underside. Then a full depth, fairly slender corridor, often several in a leaf. Frass line very variable, sometimes coiled, mostly more than on third of the width of the corridor. Pupation outside the mine (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Larva: Yellow, with a grey-brown patch on the prosternum (Johansson et al., 1990a). The larva mines venter-upwards (Emmet, 1983a). Abdominal segment 1 ventrally not spinulose (Johansson et al., 1990a) (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Pupa: Details unknown.

Adult: Not included 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: July, September - October (British leafminers).

Time of year - adults: Unknown.

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: Widespread in Britain including Bedfordshire, Caernarvonshire, Denbighshire, Derbyshire, East Cornwall, East Kent, East Suffolk, East Sutherland, Glamorgan, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Isle Of Wight, Middlesex, Monmouthshire, North Essex, North Hampshire, Shropshire, South Aberdeen, South Essex, South Hampshire, South Wiltshire, Stafford, Surrey, West Gloucestershire, West Kent, West Norfolk, West Suffolk 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.

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, Belgium, Corsica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Danish mainland, Estonia, Finland, French mainland, Germany, Hungary, Italian mainland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norwegian mainland, Poland, Portuguese mainland, Romania, Russia - Central, Sardinia, Slovakia, Slovenia, 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: