Last modified: Dec. 9, 2023, 4:46 p.m.
A common species throughout Belgium.
Native
The caterpillar is white with a pale-brown head.
The mine starts as a narrow, short corridor that is almost completely filled with black frass. Soon this corridor turns into an elongated whitish blotch mine that lies on the leaf edge.
See also bladmineerders.be
Pupation takes place in the ground in a silk cocoon.
The females deposit their eggs in the young leaves by means of a piercing ovipositor. When these young leafs grow, these piercings remain visible as gaps in the leafs. Initially, the mines consist of a narrow, short corridor that is almost completely filled with black frass but soon change into an elongated whitish blotch mine that lies on the leaf edge. In these blotch mines the frass, typical with Eriocraniidae, lies in long threads. The caterpillars hibernate as a pupa in a silk cocoon in the ground.
The adults can be observed resting on trees and come also to light.
The adults fly in April and May.
The larva lives on different species of Quercus.