Nut Leaf Blister Moth - Phyllonorycter coryli

Wingspan 7 to 9 mm. This is yet another very small, brown and white Phyllonorycter. The details of the patterning require very careful examination to determine the species and expert confirmation should be sought.

Adult Leafmine

Leafmine occurs on Hazel http://www.leafmines.co.uk/html/Lepidoptera/P.coryli.htm

Anywhere that Hazel is present.

Being bivoltine, the adults are on the wing in May and again in August.

The larva forms a blotch on leaves of Hazel having a silvery parchment-like upper surface, and eventually causing the leaf to contort, especially if close to the margin. There can be several mines to one leaf, and the mines are very visible in late summer and autumn. This species is one of the few in the genus which mine the upperside of leaves, rather than the underside.

A common moth throughout much of the British Isles. In the Butterfly Conservation's Microlepidoptera Report 2011 this species was classified as common.

Occasional (or under recorded) in Leicestershire and Rutland. L&R Moth Group status = C (very scarce resident or rare migrant).