Euspilapteryx auroguttella

Wingspan 9 to 10 mm. The attractive adult has orange or yellow markings against a metallic grey ground colour, and white tips to the dark antennae.  The larva mines the leaves of Hypericum species, often St John's Wort, initially in a lower surface gallery and then into a blotch, becoming a small narrow tentiform mine lined with silk.  Later on the larva feeds and pupates in a leaf margin folded down.

Adult Leafmine

Where the larval food plant occurs.

There are two generations, moths being on the wing in May and August. The flight time is evening onwards, and sometimes it can be attracted to light.

A fairly common and well-distributed species throughout much of the British Isles. In the Butterfly Conservation's Microlepidoptera Report 2011 this species was classified as common.

It appears to be uncommon in Leicestershire and Rutland, where there are few records. L&R Moth Group status = D (rare or rarely recorded).

http://www.leafmines.co.uk/html/Lepidoptera/E.auroguttella4.htm

https://bladmineerders.nl/parasites/animalia/arthropoda/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/gracillarioidea/gracillariidae/gracillariinae/euspilapteryx/euspilapteryx-auroguttella/