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. A mine on Greater Pond Sedge, the larva has extended the dark overwintering mine with its many diverticula (at the top of the leaf on the right), mining straight downwards towards the base of the leaf, before turning back up. The yellowish larva is visible at the bottom of the mine. ID confirmed via DNA barcoding.

Data: 10.iii.2022 ex mine 04.iii.2022, Marston Meadows, Oxon., VC23

Image:© Will Langdon