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. Habitat in sedge-rich meadow by the Thames. This meadow floods in the winter (sometimes being completely immersed). Mines were found in good numbers in early March on Greater Pond Sedge along asmall wet ditch.

Data: 04.iii.2022, Marston Meadows,Oxon., VC23

Image:© Will Langdon