Food Plant: Boraginacaeae such as Symphytum spp. (Comfrey spp.), Pulmonaria (Lungworts)

Mine: late Spring and late Summer

Pupa: External to the mine

Notes: The initial narrow gallery contains frass in a double line. It then expands to form a blotch mine. Several larvae may occupy a leaf to form a large blotch. On Echium vulgare (as shown) the mines may superficially resemble those of Dialectica scalariella, but the latter have initial twisting galleries and are a pale purple colour, with a wrinkled epidermis - with abiens the initial gallery tends to become consumed by the developing blotch.

Data: 10.vii.2012, Cranwich Heath, Norfolk, VC28

Image:© Lee Gregory