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 close up of two parallel mines on Greater Pond Sedge, the yellowish larva from one is visible at the bottom left of the leaf, and another about halfway along, much more faintly. ID confirmed via DNA barcoding.

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

Image:© Will Langdon