Food Plant: Urtica dioica (Common nettle)

Mine: July; October

Notes: Forms a long blotch mine, which is usually adjacent to the edge of the leaf, which turns black. Several larvae are shown in the mine. A common species in the UK. This species has been confused with A.reptans and the two species overlap in their distribtion in the UK. The larvae may be distinguished as the anterior arm of the cephalic skeleton is uniformly black in pseudoreptans, while in reptans the basal half is less strongly sclerotised and therefore reddish.

Data: 25.v.2011, Prior's Park, Tewkesbury, Glos., VC 33

Image:© Robert Homan