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. Found in dry sandy or calacareous soils or on shingle beaches in the UK. Two larval cases fixed for pupation on a telegraph pole above a patch of Echium vulgare. At Dungeness, old cases can easily be found by searching vertical hard surfaces above patches of Echium vulgare (eg. walls, fenceposts).

Data: 22.vii.2022, Kent, VC15

Image:© Will Langdon