Food Plant: Helictotrichon pratensis (Meadow Oat-grass) Elsewhere: Avena fatua, Festuca ovina, Poa trivialis, Phleum spp.

Egg: laid on the tip of a leaf

Mine: Sept-April;June-July

Notes: Makes an inconspicuous whitish blotch mine with a slightly wrinkled upper surface; the lower surface becoming purple tinged. Two or three leaves may be mined. Found in dry open habitats. A mine in the field on Helichtotrichon pratensis showing the upperside of the leaf, where the mine is a whitish, almost phyllonorycter-like blotch extending from the tip of the leaf, causing the upper surface of the leaf to become puckered and the mined area to contract. Adult reared.

Data: 01.v.2023, Aston Rowant NNR, Oxfordshire, VC23

Image:© Will Langdon