The adult moth has dark wings with a silvery fascia, orange head and white eyecaps. The larva mines the leaves of Birch, creating a gallery with a contorted start, filled with coiled frass..

Stigmella sakhalinella also makes a gallery with coiled frass, but not entirely filling it, and not from a contorted start.

Adult Leafmine

Provide a backlit photograph of the mine to show frass pattern; note host species

Areas where Birch is present.

The mines can be found in June and July, and occasionally in September. The adults are on the wing in May and August.

The foodplant of this species is Birch. The larvae create a distinctive leaf mine which starts off with a brownish blotch and then becomes a gallery completely filled with greenish-brown frass.

Mainly recorded in in southern and north-west England. In the Butterfly Conservation's Microlepidoptera Report 2011 this species was classified as local.

Rare, or rarely recorded in Leicestershire and Rutland.

http://www.leafmines.co.uk/html/Lepidoptera/S.continuella2.htm

https://bladmineerders.nl/parasites/animalia/arthropoda/insecta/lepidoptera/monotrysia/nepticuloidea/nepticulidae/stigmella/stigmella-continuella/