Food Plant: Carex riparia (Greater Pond sedge) ; occasionally C.acutiformis (Lesser Pond sedge)

Egg: laid on a leaf

Mine: March-May

Notes: Initially forms a short mine with diverticula then swaps leaves and forms a long, thin whitish or brown gallery mine, upwards or downwards within a leaf. It may change leaves. Pupates within a white cocoon in a leaf just above the water level. Has a southerly distribution in the UK being found in wet areas such as swamps and riverbanks.Here a larva is mining in a small, fresh mine at the base of a Greater Pond Sedge leaf in early spring. The larger, browner old mine at the top of the same leaf, has no larva in. This may therefore be a larva that started a new mine (at the base of the leaf), leaving its older overwintering mine (at the top) when it resumed feeding in spring. ID confirmed via DNA barcoding.

Data: 15.iii.2022 ex mine 07.iii.2022, Marston Meadows, Oxon., VC23

Image:© Will Langdon