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. An overwintering mine on Greater Pond Sedge in early spring, here growing in a sedge-rich flood meadow by the Thames. This one is particularly faint and is about halfway up the green leaf in the top left, appearing as brownish smudge. ID confirmed via DNA barcoding.

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

Image:© Will Langdon