Food Plant: Succisa pratensis (Devil's-bit Scabious)

Egg: A shiny black egg is laid on the upper surface of a leaf (as shown).

Mine: Summer

Notes: Forms a full depth blotch, with a shiny black dot (egg) at the start. The mine is similar to T.troglodytes but they have different habitat and foodplant preferences. T.subglaber prefers wet meadows or marshes in lowland and warm escarpments, whereas T.troglodytes is much rarer and found in drier habitats in the Brecks and Kent. The pupa forms inside the mine.

Data: 24.v.2016, Pembrey Forest, Carmarthenshire, VC44

Image:© George Tordoff