There are eight Eriocraniidae species of moth in Britain, the larvae of which can all be found mining the leaves of Birch trees at this time of year. And this means that, whenever I’m out walking and pass a Birch tree, I have to stop and stare at its leaves, looking for the signs of leaf mining. This is the first one I’ve found, Eriocrania semipurpurella, and it’s the biggest and most common of the Eriocraniidae. You can see what the adult moth looks like on the UK Moths website here.

The entry on the British Leafminers website explains: ‘The mine starts at or near the leaf edge and then widens into a blotch. The young larva has a dark head and sclerotizations on the prothorax (as shown) [click the link to see the images]. As the larva matures it loses these dark markings….’ I am still finding these mines tricky to differentiate – the British Leafminers site has a page of images that is a good starting point, and I’m lucky to have contact with one of the site managers, Rob Edmunds, so can easily get my finds checked.