Last modified: Jan. 20, 2024, 3:32 p.m.
A not so common species in Belgium. The first observation was in 1981 at Mol-Balen (AN). Most of the time difficult to find.
Native
Wingspan: 8–10 mm.
The forewings are shiny black or even with a bronzy appearance.
The youth case, quite different from the full grown case, consisting of many small rings, and having a mouth angle of about 90°. Later on the caterpillar lives in a lobe-case.
The mouth angle is 30°–50°.
See also bladmineerders.be.
The eggs are deposited at the underside of a leaf.
The youth cases are eating after the winter again.
The lobes from adult larvae are cut out from the underside of a leaf (Compare with Coleophora violacea, that cuts the lobes from the upperside of the leaf.)
The adult larvae are fully grown in the autumn.
Adult larvae are wandering around also a lot, reaching so many different plants and tree-leaves...giving rather a lot of misidentification of host plants.
Pupation in the case, usually attached to a trunk in the neighbourhood of the food plant.
The adults come to light.
The adults fly in one generation a year, occurring from mid June till the beginning of August.
The larvae are very polyphagous, but mostly on Rubus fruticosus.