Leaf miners

A leaf miner is a moth larvae that tunnels laterally through a leaf feeding from the pulp and leaving a pale trail marker across the surface. 

The trail blaizers in this instance are likely to be caterpillars of the Golden Pigmy Moth, stigmella aurelia. It is a tiny moth with a wingspan of only 6-7mm, but may be seen flying during May and into the summer.

Two caterpillars have mined this leaf.

The Golden Pigmy Moth is a Bramble specialist and lays a single egg at a time onto the leaf. When the egg hatches the pupae burrow into the leaf and leave a distinctive pale trail which starts as a fine line, but becomes broader as the caterpillar grows.

The faeces of the grub is known as frass and can be seen as a dark, dotted line along the centre of the trail, because there not enough words for poo already?

Thank you to a website called Earthstar who helped with the dirty words.