Food Plant: Eriophorum angustifolium (Common Cottongrass), Carex acuta (Slender Tufted-sedge, C.riparia (Greater Pond-sedge, Eleocharis palustris (Common Spike-rush), Trichophorum germanicum (Deergrass)

Egg: on the tip of a leaf

Mine: April-May

Notes: Mines away from the leaf tip in a gallery which starts off white then becomes a yellow-grey and more transparent. The final mine may be up to 15cms long. The pupa is formed on the leaf or stem and held in place by a sliken girdle (a shown). A common species on acid heathlands and wet bogs in the UK. Adult reared to confirm from Eriophorum angustifolium (Common Cottongrass)

Data: 17.iv.2022, Winfrith Heath, Dorset, VC9

Image:© Jack Oughton