Hantsmoths

Local in woodland in south-east England up to Northamptonshire, with isolated records elsewhere from the south-west and Welsh borders (MBGBI Vol 2). Probably under-recorded in Hampshire, where the extent of known records correlate with those areas in which the recording effort is concentrated, with the first record from the Isle of Wight coming in 1996. Wingspan 7.5-9 mm. Imago not often seen at light, and more frequently recorded in the larval stage, when mines are relatively easy to find where they are present; in Hampshire and on the Island, almost all records are of the leaf mines, hence the sparseness of the flight-time graph. Larva mines leaves of Hornbeam, over-wintering as a pupa in a cocoon.