As often happens, my search for these leafmines was inspired by a post on Twitter/X. In this instance, George, a locally based senior ecologist with Butterfly Conservation, posted that he had found, for the first time in Glamorgan, the larval cases of the tiny moth Coleophora siccifolia. The find site was on a part of the south Wales coastal path within bus-and-walking distance from home so, on the next fine day, off I set.

Searching the leaves of Hawthorn, I found lots of evidence where Coleophora larvae had been feeding. As they live in cases, there’s usually a tiny hole where the larva has parked its case and poked its head and part of its body inside the layers of the leaf to feed, thus creating a distinctive blotch (as you can see in the photograph above).

As the British leafminers website relates, the larvae also mine the leaves of Apple, Rowan and Birch, and the cases they create from bits of leaves are quite distinctive. George had found several cases but I only managed to find one, and that one was empty. Still, now that we know Coleophora siccifolia can be found locally, I’ll keep on looking for more.