Food Plant: Echium vulgare (Viper's Bugloss), Anchusa officinalis (Alkanet), Cynoglossum officinale (Hound's-tongue)

Egg: laid on a leaf

Mine: September - May

Notes: Initially forms a blotch mine, in the centre of a leaf, which it excises for its initial case. In the spring it repeatedly extends its case and it resembles a jagged catkin of willow (as shown). The larva may wander from its foodplant and attach to other plants or fences etc - in this case it is on Bromus. Found in dry sandy or calacareous soils or on shingle beaches in the UK.

National Status: Nationally Scarce A

Bradley No: 549

Data: 05.vi.2009, Namur, Saint-Servais, Belgium

Image:© Jean-Yves Baugnée