Lyonetia prunifoliella

A visit to Finemere Wood, Bucks this afternoon to carry out a late-season butterfly transect produced very few butterflies but I did find some mines of Lyonetia prunifoliella.  This was on just the one piece of young blackthorn growth in a recently-cleared area and there were half a dozen mines altogether, two of them still tenanted.  The caterpillar makes a typical meandering Lyonetia mine containing broken frass before eating out a blotch.  I'll attempt to raise the two larvae because it would be good to see the adults which should emerge this autumn.  This is a fairly recent invader from continental Europe and the first record for Bucks was of an adult in the Burnham Beeches RIS trap in July 2018.  Andy King had the adult in his Chorleywood garden trap a couple of months ago but I'm not aware of any other records for the county yet. 

Lyonetia prunifoliella, Finemere Wood 14th September

Dave Wilton
Westcott, Bucks