Food Plant: Symphytum officiniale (Common comfrey), Pulmonaria longifolia (narrow-leaved Lungwort)

Egg: underside, near to the rib

Mine: August-September

Notes: Formerly Acrocercops imperialella. A rare miner in the UK, found in damp woodland and fens. The initial gallery is soon absorbed into a blotch. The blotch is squarish as the larva eats through the leaf parenchyma to the upper epidermis. The blotch turns brown and care must be taken to distinguish these mines from diptera - which can form blackish blotches. Mine shown is on Echium plantagineum. Two larvae are shown. On this host pupation occurred iside the leaf.

Data: 27.vii.2013, Mol, (Antwerpen), Belgium

Image:© Carina van Steenwinkel.