Food Plant: Echium vulgare (Viper's Bugloss), Anchusa officinale (Alkanet)

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. An early case is shown. In the spring it repeatedly extends its case and it resembles a jagged catkin of willow. The larva may wander from its foodplant and attach to other plants or fences etc - in this case it is on Viper's Bugloss. Found in dry sandy or calacareous soils or on shingle beaches in the UK.

Data: 11.iv.2004, King's Forest, West Suffolk, VC26

Image:© Tony Prichard