Food Plant: Helictotrichon pratensis (Meadow Oat-grass) Elsewhere: Avena fatua, Festuca ovina, Poa trivialis, Phleum spp.

Egg: laid on the tip of a leaf

Mine: Sept-April;June-July

Notes: Makes an inconspicuous whitish blotch mine with a slightly wrinkled upper surface; the lower surface becoming purple tinged. Two or three leaves may be mined. Found in dry open habitats. A mine on Helichtotrichon pratensis showing the upperside of the leaf, where the mine is a whitish, almost phyllonorycter-like blotch extending from the tip of the leaf, causing the upper surface of the leaf to become puckered and the mined area to contract. Below that is the same mine from below, showing that the mine is not initially the full depth of the leaf, but causes reddish discolouration on the lower surface, which can be a good way to spot mined leaves in the field. Adults reared.

National Status: Nationally Scarce B

Bradley No: 616

Data: 01.v.2023, Aston Rowant NNR, Oxfordshire, VC23

Image:© Will Langdon