Food Plant: Cytisus scoparius (Broom), Genista tinctoria (Dyer's Greenweed)

Egg: laid on a leaf

Mine: Sept-June

Notes: Feeding starts in the autumn, in a minute case made from leaf fragments. After overwintering it mines leaves, especially from the tip. As it enlarges the case it develops a girdle of leaf fragments, which project upwards, making a herring-bone appearance. The final case, around 8mm long, on Cytisus is brown (ageing to dark grey - as shown in this old case) and yellow-brown on Genista. Pupation occurs on the stem, often high up and in sunshine (the case shown was low down in Cytisus, around 0.7-0.75m above the ground) . Found on Broom on heaths and commons and open woodland and on Dyer's Greenweed on rough pastures.

Bradley No: 545

National Status: pRDB3

Data: 13.iii.2020, The Pinnacle, Sandy, Beds, VC30, Andy & Melissa Banthorpe

Image:© Melissa Banthorpe

References:
Emmet AM et al, (1996) The Moths and Butteflies of Great Britain and Ireland
Langmaid JR, Palmer SM, Young MR, (2016), A Field Guide to the Smaller Moths of Great Britain and Ireland