Food Plant: Prunus spinosa (Blackthorn), Malus sylvestris (Crab Apple)

Egg: Underside of leaf

Mine: July-October

Notes: Makes an irregular blotch mine. The initial frass-filled gallery is very contorted (as shown. This distinguishes it from the mines of S.plagicolella, which have the initial gallery long and sinuous, with linear frass). It then makes an irregular gallery with clear margins and linear frass. Finally there is a small clear blotch, with the frass in a heap at the mouth of the gallery. The larva feeds with its ventral surface uppermost. Tends to be found in Southern coastal regions. Two mines are shown above.

Data: 14.viii.2009, Darland Banks, Kent, VC15

Image:© Tony Davis