Morley’s Final Catalogue: Plentiful among Aster tripolium in coast salterns at Hemlev and Hollesley during 1928-35 (Whit.). Aldeburgh salt-marshes on sea-aster in 1892 and later (Ctw); Lowestoft (Bd).

Recent Status: Common on Suffolk’s salt-marshes and wanders inland.

Life Style: A double brooded species that flies at night and comes to light. It can be found from May to September. The larvae mine the leaves or stems of Aster tripolium and may feed externally and return to mining. They pupate in a ribbed, white cocoon attached away from the larval habitation.

Identification: Bucculatrix species are small moths with a prominent tuft on the head.
B. maritima is strongly sexually dimorphic in patterning. The female is dark brown with white markings, as a streak from the base to one half, two pairs of opposing oblique costal and dorsal streaks one at the apex. The male is much paler and may appear cream or ochre. The same markings as the female may be discernible or the wings may be almost unicolorous similar to B. cristatella except that there will always be some dark scales at a minimum around the wing tip, the head colour will match the wing colour. The wings lack the gloss of B. cristatella. More Info
The larvae mine after hatching from an ovum on the underside of a leaf and inhabit long narrow mines. They later leave the mine to feed externally returning to produce short deep mines until pupation. More Info

	Mine: Either the leaf or a good photograph required

Recorded in 14 (24%) of 58 10k Squares. First Recorded in 1892. Last Recorded in 2023. Additional Stats

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