Food Plant: Brachypodium sylvaticum (False Brome), Bromus erectus (Upright Brome), Hordelymus europaeus (wood barley) and other Gramineae (Grasses).

Egg:  Often two or three close together on the upper side.

Mine: November-May; July.

Pupa: Attached to leaf or stem with silken girdle.

Notes: Initially a narrow brownish mine with blackish frass at its base. The larva then moves to another leaf, forming a broader mine. Both mines can pucker the blade. Two mines in the leaf tips of Hordelymus europaeus in early spring, a reasonably extensive mine (right) and a larva just beginning a new mine in the leaf tip, entering through the upper surface of the leaf (left). Adults reared.

Data: 24.ii.2024, Aston Rowant NNR, Oxfordshire, VC23

Image:© Will Langdon