Food Plant: Ranunculus spp.(Buttercup), especially R.acris (Meadow Buttercup) and R.repens (Creeping Buttercup)

Mine: Several generations throughout the year. Mines may be found even in winter and under snow! (Spencer, 1976)

Notes: The frass, in the long upper-surface white corridor, look like strings of pearls (as shown, with the larva on the left). P.ranunculivora makes similar long linear mines but in this species the frass grains are separate. Pupation is external.

Data: 31.xii.2017, Downham Market, Norfolk, VC28

Image:© Rob Edmunds