Food Plant: Carex acutiformis (Lesser Pond Sedge), C.bigelowii (Bigelow's Sedge), C.riparia (Great Pond Sedge) C.acuta (Tufted Sedge), C.paniculata (Great Tussock Sedge)

Egg: laid near to leaf tip

Mine: September-July

Notes: Forms a long gallery down the leaf, usually over the midrib or close to it, and finally feeds amongst the leaves at the base of the plant. The larva is yellowish with a dark head and becomes a red-brown colouration when preparing to pupate. Found in marshes and wet meadows. Larva in a typical long, thin, brown mine in the central leaves of Pond Sedge. Unusually, this one was mining upwards.

Data: 02.v.2022, Cothill Fen, Oxfordshire, VC22.

Image:© Will Langdon