Food Plant: Prunus spinosa (Blackthorn) and occasionally Prunus japonica (dwarf flowering cherry), Prunus domestica ssp. institia (Damson), Prunus cerasifera, Malus domestica (Apple) spp. Crategus monogyna (Hawthorn)

Egg: under the leaf cuticle

Mine: July-October

Notes: Forms blotch mines from an initial gallery. The larva is shoiwn and it ejects frass through a slit in the lower epidermis. The frass chains may become trapped in silk to give the effect shown. Rediscovered in the UK after over 100 years. This is the first record for VC30.

Data: 04.vii.2020, Marston Vale, Bedfordshire, VC30, Melissa Banthorpe

Image:© Andy Banthorpe