Food Plant: Cistus x florentinus (Rock-rose), C. x obtusifolius ('Thrive' Rock-rose)

Egg: laid under a leaf and sealed with frass

Mine: February - September (mines found in September. Adults in August and September)

Notes: Initially forms an irregular sided broad mine, with a darker centre due to frass deposition (as shown). The larvae are solitary within the mine. It then leaves this mine, when mature, and makes a new one in the shape of a channel over the leaf midrib, slightly wider than the larva and with a distinct opening, in which it pupates. Newly discovered at a few sites in the London area (Konoplin et al (2022)).

Data: 22.ii.2026, London, Middlesex, VC21

Image:© Ben Smart

References:
Konoplin Y, Barclay MVL, Hall DW, Geiser M & Salisbury A (2022) First records of the prickly leaf-beetle Dicladispa testacea (Linnaeus, 1767) (Chrysomelidae) breeding in Britain, with comments on its global distribution
Swietojanska, Jolanta & Borowiec, Lech & Stach, Malgorzata. (2014). Redescription of immatures and bionomy of the Palaearctic species Dicladispa testacea (Linnaeus, 1767) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae: Hispini), a leaf-mining hispine beetle. Zootaxa. 3811. 1-33. 10.11646/zootaxa.3811.1.1.