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Category Archives: trees

Cyllecoris histrionius

21 Tuesday Jun 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, trees

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British bugs, bugs on Oak leaves, Cyllecoris histrionius, insects on Oak trees, Miridae

It’s National Insect Week here in Britain so I thought I’d share a new bug I found while checking out life on the leaves of Oak trees. And if you think today’s bug looks a bit like last week’s bug, Leptopterna dolabrata, you’d be absolutely right. Meet Cyllecoris histrionius, another member of the Miridae family. This bug species overwinters as an egg, the larvae hatch in the Spring, then the adults are active from May to July. Oak leaves are their usual habitat; there they can be found munching away on aphids and other tiny insects.

220621 Cyllecoris histrionius

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Leafmines: Orchestes signifer

13 Monday Jun 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, trees

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British weevils, leafmines on Oak, Orchestes signifer, weevil, weevil leafmines

From my previous posts, including the recent A weirdness of weevils, I’m sure it’s obvious that I’m a huge fan of weevils, but I’d never given a thought to their life cycle until I found these leafmines. The mines are the work of the larvae of the weevil Orchestes signifer. The gallery mines follow the edges of Oak leaves before terminating in a small blotch. At that point, the larvae make themselves a case by cutting out the circular blotch, and, snugly encased, they drop to the ground to pupate. You can find a photo of the black-and-white adult weevil on the British Leafminers website.

220613 Orchestes signifer

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From larva to adult moth

04 Saturday Jun 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, trees

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British moths, moth larvae, Spindle ermine, Spindle ermine larvae, Spindle ermine moth, Spindle ermine webs, Spindle tree, Yponomeuta cagnagella

Back in June 2021, I blogged about the webs I was finding on Spindle trees in a local woodland, the silken creations of the larvae of the Spindle ermine moth (Yponomeuta cagnagella), and I’ve been seeing a multitude of these webs and larvae again in recent weeks. They don’t do a lot of damage to the larger Spindle trees but, as you can see below right, the larvae’s voracious appetites can strip the smaller saplings.

220604 spindle ermine 1 larvae

I’d heard that when the larvae are fully grown, they drop to the ground to pupate, often dangling in writhing groups from a silken thread. This was the first time I’d seen the larvae doing just that.

220604 spindle ermine 2 larvae

During my most recent visit to this woodland where Spindle trees – and the Spindle ermine larvae that munch on them – are most plentiful, I finally saw some of the adult moths**, and what beautiful little creatures they are. There were four, all sitting on thistles within a few feet of each other, so I assume they had recently emerged from pupation. And so the life cycle begins again.

220604 spindle ermine 3 adults

** A correction: Well, wouldn’t you know it? My Spindle ermine moths turned out to be Thistle ermine (Myelois circumvoluta). Serves me right for assuming they must be Spindle ermine just because of all the larvae in the area.

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A new leafhopper

31 Tuesday May 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, trees

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British cicadellidae, British leafhoppers, Cicadellidae, leafhopper, Speudotettix subfusculus

Brownish? Check. Pale veins? Check. ‘The vertex has two streaks at the anterior edge which may join in the middle’? (You can’t really see this in my photos – I had to enlarge them to find them. Also, if, like me, you aren’t familiar with the anatomy of a leafhopper, the British Bugs website has an illustrated page of bug bits.) Check. ‘And there is an orange-brown transverse band behind this’? Check. ‘The anterior of the pronotum has variably dark markings’? Check.
Six checks is a winner! This little leafhopper, a new find for me, is Speudotettix subfusculus. Look for it on trees, especially Oak trees.

220531 Speudotettix subfusculus

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Jewels in the trees

21 Saturday May 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, trees

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Chalcidoidea, Eulophidae, gem-coloured wasps, parasitic wasp, parasitoid wasp, wasps on Oak leaves

Tiny specks of metallic green and red caught the light as the sun emerged from behind large fluffy clouds and touched the leaves of an Oak tree. But what were they? Even when I edged closer, I could barely make them out, so miniscule were they. Turns out these are parasitoid wasps belonging to the superfamily Chalcidoidea, and probably from the genus Eulophidae, but that’s as far as the experts online could go without microscopic examination of these startling creatures. An article on the Natural History Museum website begins: ‘Described as “gem-like inhabitants of the woodlands by most never seen nor dreamt of”, chalcidoids include some of the most beautiful insects on the planet’, and I think you can see why.

220521 Eulophidae parasitic wasp

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The return of Zorro

14 Saturday May 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, trees

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Aproceros leucopoda, Elm zigzag sawfly, sawfly larvae, sawfly on Wych elm, Wych elm

If you’ve been following along here for a while, you might remember last year’s ‘first for Wales’ find, the distinctive marks on leaves of Wych elm trees of the Elm zigzag sawfly (Aproceros leucopoda) (Zorro comes to Wales, October 2021). For the past couple of weeks I’ve been monitoring the trees where I first saw those marks and, yesterday, found them again, with the larvae that create them in situ, happily munching away on the elm leaves. In fact, following a good look around the area, I found larvae on six Wych elm trees (and there were other trees I couldn’t access), and then found a single larva on a Wych elm at Cosmeston, perhaps half a mile away. It will be interesting to see how quickly these creatures spread through the local landscape.

220514 elm zigzag sawfly larvae

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Tree flowers

08 Sunday May 2022

Posted by sconzani in flowers, trees

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spring flowers, tree flowers, trees

Instead of wildflowers, this week we have some of the tree flowers I’ve noticed in recent weeks. It’s certainly not an exhaustive list but I’ve definitely got a much better appreciation for the lovely flowers so many trees have.

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White-letter hairstreak larva

26 Tuesday Apr 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, trees

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British butterflies, butterfly larva, larva on Wych elm, White-letter hairstreak, White-letter hairstreak larva, Wych elm

In recent weeks I’ve been searching, unsuccessfully, for the eggs of Purple and White-letter hairstreak butterflies but … during Sunday’s woodland walk I did find this little beauty, my very first White-letter hairstreak larva. I was over the moon!

220426 white-letter hairstreak larva (1)

As you can see, its camouflage is excellent and I know I wouldn’t have spotted it if I hadn’t been looking so closely at the flower and leaf buds of this Wych elm. I couldn’t find any more larvae but I’ll return soon to this site for another look and, hopefully, will be able to re-find and observe this tiny creature as it grows.

220426 white-letter hairstreak larva (2)

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Goslings

06 Sunday Mar 2022

Posted by sconzani in spring, trees

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Goat willow, goslings, Grey willow, male willow catkins, Pussy willow, Salix caprea, Salix cinerea, willow catkins

One of the sure signs of Spring for me is the appearance of the ‘goslings’, and by that I don’t mean birds, but rather the gorgeous male catkins of the Goat willow (Salix caprea) and Grey willow (Salix cinerea). You probably know them as pussy willow but, according to my Flora Britannica, ‘they used to be called “goslings” … because their texture and colour were like newly hatched geese’.

220306 pussy willow (1)
220306 pussy willow (2)

220306 pussy willow (3)

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Blossom between storms

20 Sunday Feb 2022

Posted by sconzani in flowers, trees

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Cherry blossom, Cherry tree, first blossom, Spring blossom

The Cherry tree outside my window has chosen these weather-beaten, wind-blown days of Storms Dudley, Eunice and now Franklin to open its first blossoms of the year. It’s incredibly cheering on a dull grey wet day.

220220 cherry blossom

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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  • The chocolate butterfly July 5, 2022
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  • Oxeyes and friends July 3, 2022
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