Food Plant: Carex spp., such as C.flacca (Blue Sedge), C.arenaria (Sand Sedge)

Egg: laid on the leaf

Mine: September-May; June-July

Notes: Initially a thin gallery is formed towards the leaf tip. After 2-3cms the mine turns downwards and broadens. It then becomes whitish and inflated. Found in heaths and grasslands throughout England and Wales. A mine in autumn on Carex flacca, beginning with a thin linear gallery filled with frass on the left, continuing up to the leaf tip where it broadens and reverses direction. The larva will eventually continue down to the base of the leaf in a gallery the full width of the leaf.

Data: 22.x.2023, Aston Rowant NNR, Oxfordshire, VC23

Image:© Will Langdon