Wingspan 5 to 6 mm. The adults have coarsely scaled dark brownish wings with a broken creamy fascia, usually as two blotches.

The larval foodplant is oak, and the mine begins with a narrow gallery following the midrib or a vein, and then becoming a rectangular blotch with frass gathered towards one end. The larva has a pale brown head.

Other Ectoedemia on Oak

Adult Leafmine

Provide a backlit image of the mine

Areas where oak is plentiful.

The adult moths are on the wing in June, with mines appearing in August and September.

Distributed throughout England and Wales and into the southern half of Scotland, it is more localised in the north, but can be common elsewhere. 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.albifasciella.htm

https://bladmineerders.nl/parasites/animalia/arthropoda/insecta/lepidoptera/monotrysia/nepticuloidea/nepticulidae/ectoedemia/ectoedemia-albifasciella/