Food Plant: Carex spp: C.echinata (Star Sedge), C. flacca (Blue Sedge), C.laevigata (Smooth Sedge), C.paniculata (Greater tussock-sedge), C.pendula (Pendulous Sedge) ; Luzula pilosa (Hairy Woodrush), L.sylvatica (Great wood-rush)

Egg: laid under the tip of the leaf

Mine: September-May

Notes: Mines towards the base of the leaf, ultimately in a mine as broad as the leaf.The frass is deposited in large irregular islands.The larva is a whitish-grey and has a dark brown head and black prothoracic plate. If the leaf tip die-back in winter overtakes the mining larva it then moves to another leaf. Mines in the winter on Carex sylvatica. At this time of year larvae are feeding only slowly, and there is very little fresh damage, which is only visible as a slightly black and white area beyond the dead, brown leaf tip. Adults reared.

Data: 16.ii.2023, Aston Rowant NNR, Oxfordshire, VC23

Image:© WillLangdon