Leafmines: Acrolepia autumnitella

29 Monday Sep 2025

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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.

Leafmines: Coleophora lineolea

22 Monday Sep 2025

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case-bearing moth larvae, Coleophora lineolea, Coleophora on Hedge woundwort, Coleophora species, leaf-mining moth larvae, leaf-mining moths

When I spotted the spiders I blogged about on Saturday (Spiders: Metellina segmentata), they were spinning their webs on two adjacent plants of Hedge woundwort (Stachys sylvatica) (I was actually looking for Woundwort shieldbugs, which I haven’t seen this year). In the process of photographing those spiders, I spotted some leafmines, something I’d not seen previously on these particular plants.

Noticing what looked like tiny holes in the blotch mines, I suspected the miners must be a species of Coleophora moth and, sure enough, when I turned the leaves over, I found two of the little cases that Coleophora larvae construct to shelter in. There is only one Coleophora moth species whose larvae eat Hedge woundwort so, for once, identification was straight forward: these were Coleophora lineolea. The adult moth is a little cracker, a pale orange-and-white striped beauty, a photo of which you can see on the UK Moths website.

As they’re made from the hairy leaves of the woundwort, the tiny larval cases were themselves very hairy, and rather attractive. This moth uses several other larval plant species – Black and White horehound, Lamb’s ear, and a couple of sages – as well as Hedge woundwort, and the mines and cases can be found between September and May, as they overwinter as larvae, snug in their little cases.

Leafmines: Coptotriche marginea

15 Monday Sep 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, plants

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British leafminers, British moths, Coptotriche marginea, leaf-mining moth larvae, leaf-mining moths, leafmines on Bramble

Today’s leafminer is one of two I found before I went away on my latest little mini break (I’ll feature the second in next Monday’s blog post). These bright white blotches, shown here on Bramble, but also found on other Rubus species, were made by the larvae of the moth Coptotriche marginea. Here’s a link to the UK Moth website’s entry on this moth, if you want to see what the adult looks like.

The female moth lays her egg on the upper side of a leaf, then, when the larva hatches, it chews into the leaf and initially creates a linear, gallery mine (you can see this in the third of my images, below), before the mine widens out to form a blotch. My photos below show the upper and under sides of each leaf.

This species is bivoltine; the first leafmines can be seen during July, while the second brood feed right through the winter months, from September to March. I guess staying inside a leaf is a cosy enough place to spend the winter, as long as your leaf doesn’t wither and die during the colder months.

Leafmines: Bedellia somnulentella

08 Monday Sep 2025

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Bedellia somnulentella, Bedellia somnulentella larva, Bedellia somnulentella pupa, British leafminers, British moths, leaf-mining moth larvae, leaf-mining moths, leafmines on Field bindweed

I’m particularly pleased to share this new leafminer as it’s not often that I find the signs of the mine, a larva within said mine, larvae resting outside their mines, and also a pupa, but here they are. These were found during two walks around the edge of a local recreation ground with, perhaps surprisingly, the pupa being seen on 9 August, a couple of weeks before I found the larvae (on 27 August) on plants that were a couple of hundred metres from the initial find site.

These mines are the work of the larvae of the moth Bedellia somnulentella, the adult of which is something of a ‘little brown job’, as you can see on the UK Moths website. The larval plants include both Field bindweed (as shown here) and Hedge bindweed, as well as Morning glory, and, though the mine begins as a gallery, this appears to be subsumed by the later blotch, as blotches were all I noticed.

These larvae have some interesting habits: they weave silken threads below their mines to create resting places outside their mines (an unusual habit). The threads would not be easy to spot, except for the fact that the larvae’s frass is also caught by them and so appears as scattered clumps and strings of pooh.

When they’ve finished feeding and their development is complete, the larvae exit their blotches and pupate suspended amongst their silken threads. They’re fascinating little creatures.

Leafmines: Stigmella lemniscella

25 Monday Aug 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects, trees

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Beautiful elm dot, British leafminers, leaf-mining moth larvae, leaf-mining moths, leafmines, leafmines on Wych elm, Stigmella lemniscella

I discovered today’s new leafmines the same day as I found last week’s (Leafmines: Stigmella viscerella) and, considering how much time I spend leaf-fossicking and simply staring at trees, was also amazed I’d not noticed these very distinctive mines before.

The larvae of the moth Stigmella lemniscella munch away within the leaves of Elm trees (Ulmus species), in this case Wych elms (Ulmus glabra), and their galleries often follow the edge of the leaves, looking like a zigzag pattern. These moths are bivoltine so are active during July, and again in September – October. The adult moth is a pretty little thing – there’s a photo on the UK Moths website, which has the common name of Beautiful elm dot.

Leafmines: Stigmella viscerella

18 Monday Aug 2025

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British leafmines, leaf-mining moth larvae, leaf-mining moths, leafmines on Wych elm, Stigmella viscerella, Wych elm

I’m often surprised when I find a new leafmine: how is it that I’ve not noticed this one before, and how many different leafmines can there be? The answer to the first question has to be that I haven’t been paying enough attention, and to the second that there are probably hundreds that I haven’t yet found.

Today’s new leafmines were made by larvae of the moth Stigmella viscerella, and the mines can be found on the leaves of Elm trees, in this case Wych elm (Ulmus glabra), during August and September. Now that I’m aware of them, I’ve managed to find the mines in two different locations on two separate days, which is why the elm leaves in the two sets of images look different in colour (one day was brighter than the other).

The epithet viscerella may seem odd – it comes from the Latin viscera, plural of viscus, and refers to the human body’s internal organs – but when I look at these mines, the twisting shapes of the frass-filled galleries do, indeed, remind me of human intestines. I presume that the adult moth is not often seen as the UK Moths website doesn’t have its photo but, if you’re curious to see what emerged from these ‘intestines’, I managed to find an image on the German Lepiforum website.

Leafmines: Phyllonocnistis unipunctella

28 Monday Jul 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, trees

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British leafmines, leaf-mining moth larvae, leaf-mining moths, leafmines on Poplar trees, Phyllonocnistis unipunctella

You could easily mistake the leafmines of the tiny moth Phyllonocnistis unipunctella for the dried trails of a snail after it had meandered around a leaf’s surface. This is due to the moth’s larvae mining just underneath the upper epidermis rather than more deeply within the leaf structure (and that can occur on the upper or lower surface of the leaf, though I’ve only found upper surface mines so far). The larvae also do not leave a trail of frass in the mine; I’ve not found any explanation for where that disappears to!

The fact that they mine so close to the leaf surface means the larvae are clearly visible within their mines, as you can see in my photos here. And, once they’ve munched as much leaf matter as necessary, they pupate in a silken membrane they create under the rolled down edge of the leaf, which you can also see in my images.

According to the British Leafminers website, Phyllonocnistis unipunctella uses three species of Populus as its larval plant: Black poplar (Populus nigra), Lombardy poplar (Populus x italica) and Black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa). The mines shown here are from Black and Lombardy poplars found in a local park. You can see the adult moth, a pale silvery creature with a single dot near its tail end (hence the epithet unipunctella), on the UK Moths website.

Leafmines: Stigmella trimaculella

21 Monday Oct 2024

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British leafminers, leaf-mining moth larvae, leaf-mining moths, leafminers, leafmines on Poplar, Stigmella trimaculella

My leaf-mining contacts on X/Twitter and now on Bluesky were posting their lovely images of a mine on Poplar leaves that I hadn’t seen before so, of course, I went looking. These photos (and many more) are the result.

241021 stigmella trimaculella (1)

Though the UK Moths website information on their distribution states that this moth can be found ‘throughout England, where it is fairly common except in the west’ and that ‘there are records from Scotland and Wales, but very few’, there are, in fact, over a hundred Welsh records and they are scattered throughout the country.

241021 stigmella trimaculella (2)

This is Stigmella trimaculella (I love its common name: Three-spot dot), whose larvae munch on the leaves of Populus species – that’s all the various types of Poplar, as well as Aspen. The mine starts out as a thin gallery, widening as the larva grows in size, eventually becoming a silvery blotch. As you can see in the photo below left, the larva is a greenish-yellow in colour and has a brown head. The mines can be found twice each year, between June and July and again from September to October.

241021 stigmella trimaculella (3)

Leafmines: Lyonetia prunifoliella, 2

30 Monday Sep 2024

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blackthorn, leaf-mining moth larvae, leaf-mining moths, leafmines on Blackthorn, Lyonetia prunifoliella

As you will have gathered from the ‘2’ in the title, I’ve blogged about this leafmine before (Leafmines: Lyonetia prunifoliella, 9 October 2023).

240930 lyonetia prunifoliella (1)

The reason I’m revisiting this species is that, by sheer chance, I turned over a couple of Blackthorn leaves at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park last week and discovered an adult moth sitting next to the ‘hammock’ cocoon from which it had, presumably, very recently emerged.

240930 lyonetia prunifoliella (2)

My photos aren’t sharp as the Blackthorn was growing just inside the edge of a woodland and the light wasn’t good but I was still delighted to find this gorgeous little moth.

240930 lyonetia prunifoliella (3)

Leafmines: Caloptilia rufipennella

23 Monday Sep 2024

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British leafminers, Caloptilia rufipennella, leaf-mining moth larvae, leaf-mining moths, leafminers on Sycamore, sycamore

I was really pleased with my leaf-turning results on this particular Sycamore tree as I managed to find all three stages of this leaf-mining larva’s progress through the leaves. They illustrate quite well the breeding cycle of the little brown moth, Caloptilia rufipennella (you can see what it looks like on the UK Moths website).

240923 Caloptilia rufipennella (1)

After hatching from its egg, the larva chews away at the leaf, always in the angle between the veins, creating a small, often triangular-shaped blotch. The photos above show the upper and lower sides of the leaf where it has been feeding. The larva then moves to the tips of the lobes of the leaf where it creates a series of two or three cones, folding the tip of the lobe to create a little shelter in which to feed, each cone bigger than the previous one as the larva grows (as shown below).

240923 Caloptilia rufipennella (2)

And finally, once it’s fully grown, the larva weaves itself a little cocoon in which to pupate (see below). Interestingly, the UK Moths website says that Caloptilia rufipennella was discovered in Britain as recently as 1970 but is now quite common in most of England and Scotland. Wales doesn’t get a mention but the Welsh national database shows records starting in 1980 and now scattered across the country.

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