Mine of Trifurcula headleyella on Prunella vulgaris Image: Willem Ellis (Bladmineerders van Europa)

Leaf-mine: Egg at the upperside of the leaf. The mine is an extremely long corridor, often following the midrib or the leaf margin, with frass in a narrow central line, widening in te end into an irregular elongate blotch. Corridor sides somehwat irregularly scalloped out, especially towards the end. The larva may move, all the while mining, to another, even a third, leaf by way of the petioles and stem. Therefore one leaf may have only a narrow corridor, another a blotch. Pupation external. Mines mainly in the lowest leaves, difficult to find (Bladmineerders van Europa).

The leaves are stained purple as the larva mines. It usually mines two or three leaves, via the petiole and stem. The mines are long, with linear frass and irregular margins (British leafminers).

Larva: Bright yellow, head light brown (Emmet, 1983a; Klimesch, 1948a); see Gustafsson and van Nieukerken (1990a) for a description (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Pupa: Details unknown.

Adult: Not illustrated 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 to October (Bladmineerders van Europa).

Time of year - adults: Unknown.

Distribution in Great Britain and Ireland: Britain including North Hampshire, South Wiltshire, Stafford and Warwickshire (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).

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, Croatia, Czech Republic, Danish mainland, Estonia, Finland, French mainland, Germany, Greek mainland, Hungary, Italian mainland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia - North, Slovakia, Spanish mainland, Sweden, Switzerland 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:

Parasitoids in Britain and elsewhere: Unknown.