Food Plant: Alisma plantago-aquatica (Water |Plantain)

Egg: on a flower stem (upper part)

Mine: September-April

Notes: The larva burrows down the flower stem, leaving irregular scattered frass. Several larvae may inhabit a single stem. It hibernates, fully fed, in a grey silken cocoon in the lower part of the stem. Pupation occurs in the spring. Found in aquatic habitats, at the edges of ponds, steams, ditches, fens, lakes where the host plant grows. Larval entry hole in stem of Alisma plantago-aquatica as seen in the field.

Data: 25.ix.2022, Dungeness, Kent, VC15

Image:© Will Langdon