Zeller's Midget

Another warm, sunny day spent at home. One of our local Wildlife Groups is producing a series of challenges, and the latest one involved trying to find and photograph the largest and smallest examples of a particular type of organism that you could find in your garden. I decided to do insects, so spent some time peering at flowers and foliage in the hunt for tiny creatures. 

This Zeller's Midget or European Oak-leaf Miner was not the smallest by any means, but is much prettier than the tiny Campion Aphid which was. This micro-moth has a wingspan of 7-9 mm and is fairly common throughout much of the British Isles, though more so in the south. 
The larvae mine the leaves of oak, beech or sweet chestnut. Like many micro-moths, it's actually very attractive when magnified, with subtly patterned wings and a rather fetching ginger topknot. Another new record for the garden list.