Food Plant: Ruscus aculeatus (Butcher's-broom)

Egg: low down on a cladode or shoot

Mine: July-October

Notes: Initially mines the stem or cladode. After two weeks it bores into the shoot tip and vacates this after two weeks. The larva then completes its feeding in a red or green berry, initially mining beneath the pericarp before boring into the interior. Infested fruits are bicolored red and green. The larva is shown. In September -October the larva pupates within a cocoon on a lower cldode or stem. A rare moth found mostly in Dorset and Hampshire.

Data: 23.vii.2023, Garston Wood, Dorset, VC9

Image:© Jack Oughton