The caterpillar is pale green.

The mine starts as a narrow gallery that is almost completely filled with red-brown frass. Later on, this gallery ends abruptly in a blotch in which the grainy black frass is distributed.

See also bladmineerders.be

The cocoon with the pupa hangs at the underside of a leaf in a peculiar hammock, suspended from silken 'guy ropes'.

The eggs are deposited in the underside of a leaf.
The young larva initially mines a narrow gallery that is almost completely filled with red-brown frass. Later on, this gallery suddenly ends into a blotch in which the grainy black frass is distributed and is often located against the leaf margin. Nevertheless, part of the frass is worked out by the caterpillar that makes, for this purpose, one or more holes in the lower epidermis. A part of that expelled frass remains hanging in the silken fibres spun by the caterpillar at the bottom of the leaf.
The caterpillar only mines at the underside in young leaves of the food plant and can leave its mine and start another one, sometimes even on a different leaf.
Pupation takes place in a peculiar silken hammock, constructed by the caterpillar.

The larva lives mainly on Prunus spinosa but also other Rosaceae such as e.g.; Crataegus, Malus, Cotoneaster, Sorbus, Cydonia, Chaenomeles and Mespilus are accepted as hostplant.
Only occasionally it had been found also on Betula.