Stigmella luteella

Wingspan 4 to 5 mm. The adult moth is narrow-winged with a purplish-bronzy sheen. There is a whitish fascia which narrows towards the costa, outside which the purple colour is darker.

Adult Leafmine

Leafmine occurs on Birch. http://www.leafmines.co.uk/html/Lepidoptera/S.luteella.htm

Where Birch is present.

This species has an extended generation with adults flying from May to July and larval mines being found between August and November.

The larval foodplant is Birch (Betula sp). The larva forms a gallery mine, initially highly contorted, sides of mine scalloped, scallops are usually free of frass. The larva is pale yellow, gut-line green.

Widespread and fairly frequent in mainland Britain. In the Butterfly Conservation's Microlepidoptera Report 2011 this species was classified as common.

Increasingly well recorded in Leicestershire and Rutland in recent years, particularly from the leafmines on Birch