Food Plant: Carex riparia (Greater Pond sedge) ; occasionally C.acutiformis (Lesser Pond sedge)

Egg: laid on a leaf

Mine: March-May

Notes: Initially forms a short mine with diverticula then swaps leaves and forms a long, thin whitish or brown gallery mine, upwards or downwards within a leaf. It may change leaves. Pupates within a white cocoon in a leaf just above the water level. Has a southerly distribution in the UK being found in wet areas such as swamps and riverbanks. A small overwintering mine appears as a brownish smudge on Greater Pond Sedge (near the top of the left hand leaf) in the field in early spring, here growing on the edge of a small pond.

Data: 27.iii.2022, Wolvercote Green, Oxon., VC23

Image:© Will Langdon