Food Plant: Genista tinctoria (Dyer's Greenweed)

Mine: April-June; October, November (hibernating until Spring)

Notes: The larvae feed between spun leaves and often mine them. It was previously known from four or possibly five sites in the British Isles, all in West and East Sussex (VC 13 and 14 respectively). The last record was in 1990. It was then thought extinct In 2013 it was rediscovered on the Isle of Wight (VC10). Further searches in 2014 found this species in two further localities on the island. (Beavan & Heckford, 2014, Syncopacma vinella (Bankes, 1898) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) rediscovered in the British Isles, on the Isle of Wight, Entomologist’s Gazette 65: 209–214).

National Status: pRDB1

Bradley No: 846

Gelechiid Recording Scheme: http://www.gelechiid.co.uk/species/syncopacma-vinella

Data: 23.vi.2014, Isle of Wight, VC10

Image:© S D Beavan