Food Plant: Centaurea nigra (Common Knapweed)

Egg: laid at the leaf edge.

Mine: May-June; July-August

Notes: Forms an upper surface blotch mine, stained black with frass, which occurs in a central pile (as shown, with larva). Pupation occurs within the mine, in a cocoon. A scarce leaf miner. local in Central and Southern England and very local in Wales.

Data: v.2026, Windmill Hill NR, Offenham, Worcs, VC 37

Image:© Oliver Wadsworth