Wingspan 11mm. This is a tiny but quite beautiful little moth, its wings being a mix of metallic golds and purples when seen in the right light.

All Eriocraniidae leafmines have spaghetti-like frass, in long threads. The larvae usually feed communally on one leaf and often the mines run together into a large blotch, giving the appearance of several larvae in one mine. The larvae are small, pale and translucent.

Adult leafmine+larvae

When recording the adult, genitalia dissection is required.  When recording the mine, you must check appearance of larvae and note whether they are feeding communally 

Around Birch.

The adults fly around the foodplants during April, but are not often seen.

Like several of its congeners, the larval foodplant is Birch, the larvae creating a blotch mine in the leaves during May, often feeding gregariously with several larvae in a single blotch.

This spring-flying species is probably overlooked, but is generally well distributed throughout much of mainland Britain. In the Butterfly Conservation’s Microlepidoptera Report 2011 this species was classified as local.

It appears to be uncommon in Leicestershire and Rutland, where there are few records. L&R Moth Group status = D (rare or rarely recorded). The lack of records could be partly due to the diminutive size of the species, and the difficulty of spotting the adult amongst Birch.

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

https://bladmineerders.nl/parasites/animalia/arthropoda/insecta/lepidoptera/glossata/eriocraniidae/eriocrania/eriocrania-cicatricella/