Elachistidae

38.022 Twin-barred Sedge-miner Elachista gleichenella (Fabricius, 1781)

Local

Similar species:

Forewing: 3.25 to 4.5mm

Habitats: Woodland and shady banks.

Habits:

Foodplant: The larva mines a leaf of Glaucous Sedge, Star Sedge, Greater Tussock-sedge, Hairy Wood-rush Smooth-stalked Sedge, Pendulous Sedge or Great Wood-rush. It mines the underside at the base of the leaf, but quickly switches to the upper side where it forms a narrow, winding gallery mine. In the spring this is massively widened about half way up the leaf, with islands of dark frass, causing the sides of the leaf to pinch in towards the mine. Sometimes the natural winter die-back of the leaf causes the larva to start a mine in a new leaf. It does not make a gallery, just an irregular elongated blotch. The larva is a grey-white, with a dark brown head and black thoracic plate. It pupates on a leaf attached by a girdle of silk or spun in the leaf litter.

On the European mainland it has also been recorded feeding on Fingered Sedge, Grey Sedge, Dwarf Sedge, Soft-leaved Sedge, Large-fruited Prickly-sedge, Bird's-foot Sedge, False Fox-sedge, Wood-sedge, Japanese Sedge, other sedges, White Wood-rush and Hairy Wood-rush.