27 Sunday Oct 2024
On Thursday I caught the train in to Cardiff, to the station nearest Roath Park, specifically to immerse myself in the gorgeous colours of Autumn, and I was not disappointed. Here are some of the glorious scenes that caught my eye around the lake.
24 Monday Jun 2024
Tags
British leafminers, British sawflies, leaf-mining sawfly larvae, leafminers on Birch, sawfly larvae on Birch
Staring at the leaves of young Birch trees paid off once again when I recently spotted these large blotches.
They were made by the larvae of Scolioneura betuleti, a small black sawfly – you can see a photo of the adult on The Sawflies of Britain and Ireland website. The larvae are active in early summer and again in the autumn – the British Leafminers website has images of the distinctive larvae.
17 Sunday Dec 2023
Tags
British leafminers, leaf-mining fly larvae, leaf-mining moth larvae, leafminers, leafmines, leafmines on plants, leafmines on trees
As a result of standing staring for hours at leaves, I’ve found lots and lots of lovely new-to-me leafminers this year. Here’s a summary of those I’ve blogged about:
On 13 February, Leafmines: Phyllonorycter ulicicolella covered the tricky-to-find mines of tiny moth larvae on gorse. In Leafmines: Eriocrania unimaculella, 22 May, the larvae of a different moth were mining Birch leaves, and, on 26 June, Leafmines: Mompha terminella, featured more moth larvae mines, this time on Enchanter’s nightshade. In October the moth miners were munching on Hawthorn leaves (Leafmines: Bucculatrix bechsteinella, 2 October) and on Blackthorn (Leafmines: Lyonetia prunifoliella, 9 October). The only new non-moth miner of the year was a fly whose larvae were found mining the leaves of Alder (Leafmines: Agromyza alnivora, 16 October) and, later in October, we were back to moth miners, with Hawthorn once again the plant of choice (Leafmines: Phyllonorycter corylifoliella, 23 October). In November, a willow moth miner I’d mentioned once before in passing starred in its very own blog (Leafmines: Phyllonorycter viminiella, 20 November) and, a week later, on 27 November, another moth larva was found on the leaves of a rose species (Leafmines: Stigmella anomalella). The final leafminer find of 2023 was yet another moth, this time devouring the leaves of Wild privet (Leafmines: Gracillaria syringella, 4 December).
I’ve already referenced the three case-bearing moth larvae leafminers in an earlier countdown blog (C is for Coleophora) but, just for completeness, I’ll also link to them here: Leafmines: Coleophora lutipennella on 1 May, Leafmines: Coleophora serratella on 15 May, and Leafmines: Coleophora gryphipennella on 13 November.
27 Monday Nov 2023
Tags
British leafminers, Dog rose, leaf-mining moth larvae, leaf-mining moths, leafminers, moth leafmines on Dog rose, Stigmella anomalella
This particular Dog rose (Rosa canina) was generous with its leafminers. Not only did I see the feeding signs and case-bearing larva of Coleophora gryphipennella (see my 13 November blog post) but I also found my first leafmines of Stigmella anomalella, also known appropriately enough as the Rose leaf miner (there are photos of the adult moth on the UK Moths website).
As you can see, the larvae create long meandering galleries that are initially narrow and completely filled with frass, then later widen to show clear space on either side of the line of frass. The British Leafminers website notes that the gallery often ‘crosses back over itself’ as my image shows – well, actually, it’s crossing back under itself, but you get the idea. I was also lucky to spot larvae in mines on two of the leaves I looked at. These mines can be found around July and then again between October and December, so check out those Dog rose leaves before they all fall.
20 Monday Nov 2023
Tags
British leafminers, British moths, leaf-mining moth larvae, leaf-mining moths, leafmines on willow, Phyllonorycter viminiella
This was just the second time I’ve spotted these particular leafmines: they got a mention in On narrow-leaved willows, 26 December 2022, but I thought they deserved their own post. The larvae of the moth Phyllonorycter viminiella munch on the underside of Willows (usually those Salix species with smooth leaves), their feeding causing the edges of leaves to fold over and develop strong creasing in the mine, as you can see in my images below. These attractive little moths are bivoltine, so you can find the larval mines first around July and then again around October.
13 Monday Nov 2023
Tags
Coleophora gryphipennella, leaf-mining moth larvae, leaf-mining moths, moth larvae in leaf mines
Another leaf-turning session recently resulted in another leafminer, the tiny moth Coleophora gryphipennella whose larvae feed on various species of Rosa. (You can see the adult moth on the UK Moths website here.)
According to the British Leafminers website, the larvae, which create a tiny case to live in, can initially be found mining leaves from late August to late October. They hibernate in their cases over the colder winter months before emerging to feed again from April to mid May in a newly constructed case. These moths are apparently common, though this is the first I’ve spotted in all my time spent staring at and turning over leaves.
09 Thursday Nov 2023
Tags
autumn leaves, British insects, importance of leaves, insect decline, insects in leaves, over-wintering insects in leaves, snails in leaves
When the weather’s cold and wet, it’s time to hide and huddle. I found five 7-spot ladybirds and a Hairy shieldbug in this rolled-up leaf. (And, don’t fret, I rolled it up again so they could get back to their snoozing.)
And they’re not the only ones choosing leaves for home and shelter as the colder weather approaches. All sorts of creatures creep or crawl or slide inside a conveniently place leaf-roll. Like these earwigs and, below, those snails.
Though these leaves will eventually fall to the ground, they’ll be home to a diverse abundance of creatures during the winter months, which is why it’s always best to let some leaves remain on the ground – please don’t be tempted to rake or blow them all away for the sake of tidiness. Nature is not tidy and, given there’s been a 60% decline in flying insects in the UK in the last 20 years (just one example of Nature’s overall decline), leaving leaves in place is the very least we can do.
23 Monday Oct 2023
Tags
Hawthorn, Hawthorn midget, leaf-mining moths, leafminers, leafmines on Hawthorn, moth larvae on Hawthorn, Phyllonorycter corylifoliella
I thought I’d already shared this leafmine but it seems not so say hello to the Hawthorn midget (Phyllonorycter corylifoliella), a very attractive chestnut –and-white moth, which can be viewed on the UK Moths website and whose larvae mine the leaves of various Rosaceous trees and shrubs. As you can probably see, the mines I’ve found have been on Hawthorn (Crataegus species) but they also mine Apple (Malus sp.) and Cherry (Prunus sp.)
The mines, which are found on the upperside of the leaves, look almost silvery and contains strings of brown frass, can be found in July, and again in September –October. The adult moths are active in May and August, though I’ve not seen one yet.
16 Monday Oct 2023
Tags
Agromyza alnivora, Alder, British leafminers, fly mines, leaf-mining fly larvae, leafmines, leafmines on Alder
These are new leafmines for me, found during time recently spent checking the leaves of Alder trees, both the more frequently seen Alder (Alnus glutinosa) and the Italian alder (Alnus cordata), a common planting here along street edges and in parks. To me, these mines all look very snake-like!
These are the work of larvae of the fly species Agromyza alnivora. As the British Leafminers website describes, they create ‘An upper surface corridor, gradually widening, which is not associated with leaf margin or veins’, but the most distinctive feature of these mines is the frass, which is always deposited in two rows. The larvae make their mines twice each year – the technical term is bivoltine – in summer and in early autumn.
09 Monday Oct 2023
Tags
British leafmines, British moths, leaf mines, leafmines on Blackthorn, leafmining moth larvae, leafmining moths, Lyonetia prunifoliella
For over 100 years, the lovely little micro moth Lyonetia prunifoliella was thought to be extinct in the UK until it was rediscovered in the 2000s in southern England. It took a while to spread across the country but was found new to Wales, near Holyhead, last autumn and, soon afterwards, found here in south Wales, at Kenfig National Nature Reserve, though just one larval mine was found despite much searching by Butterfly Conservation’s senior moth ecologist George Tordoff.
This year, though, George says, it’s really taken off in south Wales: he’s found it in various Cardiff parks and at Lavernock Nature Reserve. When I heard this news last Sunday, 1 October, I immediately decided to go searching, focussing in particular on the suckering growth of Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), the tree this moth appears to favour locally for its larval leafmines (though it is known to use other roseaceous trees elsewhere).
Last Monday I found Lyonetia prunifoliella mines immediately at the first place I looked, and have since found it at six locations in my surrounding area, sometimes in abundance, other times just one or two mines, despite a plentiful supply of young Blackthorn leaves. The mines are relatively easy to identify, as the larvae eject their frass from the mines in a ‘string of black pearls’, a rather poetic description from someone on Twitter but easy to remember. (The photographs above show the upper and under sides of the same leaf, with the larva apparent above and its frass ejected below.)
Although most mines I’ve seen have been empty (this moth overwinters as an adult), a few have held larvae, and I was particularly delighted last Thursday to find a group of five cocoons, strung like hammocks on the underside of leaves with silk produced by the larvae before they pupate. I’ve yet to see an adult moth but will definitely share that exciting moment when it happens.
earthstar 
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