Food Plant: Carex flacca (Glaucous Sedge), other Carex species Elsewhere: Deschampsia cespitosa, Melica sp., Sesleria caerulea

Egg: laid on the leaf tip

Mine: September-April

Notes: May either make a short broad mine, which fills the leaf tip or a broader one which occupies half the leaf between the midrib and leaf edge. There may be more than one mine in a leaf. The larva overwinters in the mine and extends it in the spring. Pupation occurs in the angle of a leaf, under a girdle. Found in chalky and sandy areas throughout Ireland and Britain. A mine in the winter on Carex flacca. The mining activity of the larva causes the tip of the leaf to die, which can be a good way of detecting mined leaves. Much of the mine is contained within the dead leaf tip here, and just a small section of the most recently formed part of the mine is visible where the leaf has not yet died. Adult reared.

Data: 29.xii.2022, Watchet, Somerset, VC5

Image:© WillLandon