Ectoedemia heringella

Wingspan 5 to 6 mm.

The larvae feed on Holm Oak (Quercus ilex) and related species, creating a contorted gallery mine filled with dark frass. The first part is very narrow, but it widens abruptly in the later part.  Usually there are several larvae mining a single leaf and it can be extremely abundant.

Adult Leafmine

Areas where Holm Oak is present.

The adult moths emerge in June or July and like many of the group are rarely encountered, unless they are reared from mines collected in the autumn or winter.

Mines occur on host Holm Oak and related species from November through to April.

This species was first discovered in England in 1996, when it was found in Greater London but its identity was not confirmed until 2001. Since then it has been found across a large part of south-eastern England. In the Butterfly Conservation's Microlepidoptera Report 2011 this species was classified as Nationally Scarce B.

It appears to be increasingly common in Leicestershire and Rutland where it is mostly recorded from leafmines on Evergreen Oak (Holm Oak).

http://www.leafmines.co.uk/html/Lepidoptera/E.heringella.htm

https://bladmineerders.nl/parasites/animalia/arthropoda/insecta/lepidoptera/monotrysia/nepticuloidea/nepticulidae/ectoedemia/ectoedemia-heringella/#:~:text=Found%20by%20Martin%20Honey%20for,of%20the%20native%20Holm%20Oak.