Tags
Acrolepia autumnitella, Bittersweet, British leafminers, British moths, leaf-mining moth larvae, leaf-mining moths, leafmines on Bittersweet, Solanum dulcamara
I don’t think I’ve seen leafmines on this plant before – this is Bittersweet (Solanum dulcamara), and the mines can also be found on other members of this plant genus, Tomato (S. lycopersicum) and Potato (S. tuberosum), as well as on Deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna).
The miners here are the larvae of the moth Acrolepia autumnitella, a very pretty little chestnut-coloured creature, which is shown on the UK Moths website. As you can see in my images, the larvae create quite large blotch mines, and these can be found twice a year, in June and September. I haven’t yet found a pupa but I will keep looking because the silk cocoon that surrounds the pupa looks rather lovely, as a photo on the British Leafminers website shows.
earthstar 
This is fascinating. How long will the larvae stay in the mine?
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Hi Bob. I don’t know the exact timings for these larvae but I would guess the life cycle is about a week as an egg, a couple of weeks as larvae in the mine – the mine starts tiny and grows in to a large blotch as they consume the leaf from the inside, and a couple more weeks as a pupa, before hatching as an adult moth.
Leafmines certainly are fascinating. If you search that word in my blog, you’ll find I’ve covered quite a number of species now. 🙂
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