Food Plant: Geum rivale (Water avens) and other Geum species Elsewhere: Rubus fruticosus (Bramble), R.caesius (Dewberry), R.idaeus (Raspberry), R.macrophyllus (Bramble)

Egg: Upper leaf surface

Mine: September-November

Notes: First discovered in Scotland in 1990. It occurs at least as low as 50m in damp, shady riparian Birch and Alder woodland in Sutherland. The initial mine often follows the vein and then broadens gradually later, with dispersed frass and clear margins. The initial gallery has frass in an interrupted black line.

National Status: pRDBK

Bradley No: 54a

Data: 16.x.2004, River Shin, East Sutherland, VC107

Image:© Duncan Williams

References:
Bland KP (1997), Stigmella pretiosa (Heinemann, 1862) (Lepidoptera:Nepticulidae) mining Geum rivale L. in southern Scotland - a species new to the British Isles, Entomologist's Gazette 48:81-83
Johansson, R, Nielsen, ES, Nieukerken, EJ & Gustafsson, B (1990), The Nepticulidae and Opostegidae (Lepidoptera) of north west Europe, Fauna Entomologica scan 23