Category Archives: trees

Leafmines: Phyllonorycter comparella

04 Monday Nov 2024

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This was a wonderful surprise! I was checking Poplar leaves, not searching for anything in particular, when I turned over a leaf and found this tiny moth, presumably only just emerged from the pupa within its silken mine as its wings had not fully expanded.

241104 Phyllonorycter comparella (1)

I didn’t know what it was until I got home and checked my photos, and then was fairly sure I must have got my identification wrong as the Welsh biodiversity database was showing just four Welsh records, all closer to England, in the county of Gwent. The name I’d come up with was Phyllonorycter comparella (common name Poplar leaf-miner).

241104 Phyllonorycter comparella (2)

The mine certainly looked right, though it was difficult to be certain of the moth from what I had been able to see of its markings. But when I posted photos on social media, one of the moth experts I know almost immediately popped up with a comment ‘Blimey …’ and ‘I can’t think of any plausible alternatives’, and then another expert commented ‘Very good find’. And now my county moth recorder has confirmed my record. You can read more about this Poplar-leaf-mining moth on the British Leafminers website and see better photos of the adult moth on the UK Moths website.

Rowan, the thinker

03 Sunday Nov 2024

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Did you know there is an ancient Celtic zodiac, with trees as the symbols for each of the thirteen (moon-cycle-based, hence thirteen not twelve) signs? I didn’t, until I saw a post on Instagram by the extremely talented artist Luke Adam Hawker, who has just released a series of etchings, one for each of the signs (I wish I could afford to buy the etching for my sign!).

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Along with the tree images he’s been posting, he’s also listed information about the qualities attributed to people born under each sign. The Rowan tree is the symbol for a person born between 21 January and 17 February, summarised as The Thinker, and the qualities they are said to possess are as follows:

Philosophical visionaries with original and creative minds, often misunderstood due to their passionate ideals. Despite a cool exterior, they burn with inner passion, transforming situations and inspiring others with their unique perspectives.

Are you a Thinker? Do you recognise yourself in this description?

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The Rowans in my images, taken at Cardiff’s Cathays Cemetery during a recent wander, are lush with berries at the moment, providing welcome fodder for both local birds and the winter thrushes currently arriving from Europe and Scandinavia.

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Leafmines: Stigmella trimaculella

21 Monday Oct 2024

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My leaf-mining contacts on X/Twitter and now on Bluesky were posting their lovely images of a mine on Poplar leaves that I hadn’t seen before so, of course, I went looking. These photos (and many more) are the result.

241021 stigmella trimaculella (1)

Though the UK Moths website information on their distribution states that this moth can be found ‘throughout England, where it is fairly common except in the west’ and that ‘there are records from Scotland and Wales, but very few’, there are, in fact, over a hundred Welsh records and they are scattered throughout the country.

241021 stigmella trimaculella (2)

This is Stigmella trimaculella (I love its common name: Three-spot dot), whose larvae munch on the leaves of Populus species – that’s all the various types of Poplar, as well as Aspen. The mine starts out as a thin gallery, widening as the larva grows in size, eventually becoming a silvery blotch. As you can see in the photo below left, the larva is a greenish-yellow in colour and has a brown head. The mines can be found twice each year, between June and July and again from September to October.

241021 stigmella trimaculella (3)

Leafmines: Parornix anglicella revisited

14 Monday Oct 2024

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Recently, when checking Hawthorn leaves for leafmines, I spotted two of these larvae spinning on separate but close Hawthorn bushes so took several photos of both and a short video of one.

241014 Parornix anglicella (1)

As the majority of photographs show larvae from above not below, and these both looked to have dark spot-like markings, I was confused about which species they might be, perhaps Parornix anglicella or maybe Phyllonorycter oxyacanthae. And I wasn’t the only one scratching my head, as my online expert contacts weren’t sure either – one of them even contacted their own expert to get an opinion. A return visit by me was clearly required, to try to re-find the larvae, possibly get more images, and see what had developed from their spinning activities.

So, while the location was fresh in my memory, I walked that way again the following day, and, amazingly, managed to find one of the leaves – not an easy task finding an individual leaf in a Hawthorn bush but the photo below shows the leaf in question, on consecutive days.

241014 Parornix anglicella (2)

And, when I turned the leaf over, there was the proof of identification, the distinctive cone of Parornix anglicella, still very green as the larva within hadn’t yet had time to eat all the leaf from inside. Turns out the expert’s expert had been correct!

241014 Parornix anglicella (3)

Leafmines: Aulagromyza tremulae

07 Monday Oct 2024

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I don’t find many leafmines on Aspen, probably because there aren’t a lot of Aspen trees growing locally. Also, I haven’t been finding many mines made by creatures other than moths but today’s find is an exception, as these silvery meandering gallery mines on Aspen leaves were made by the larva of the tiny fly Aulagromyza tremulae.

241007 Aulagromyza tremulae (1)

If I hadn’t been doing a spot of leaf-turning, I could easily have missed these mines, as they are almost exclusively made in the lower surface of the leaf (see images below showing the lower and upper leaf surfaces). This is one of the characteristics that distinguishes these mines from those of other species, though Barry Warrington, who runs the National Agromyzidae Recording Scheme and website, discovered this wasn’t always the case when he recently bred Aulagromyza tremulae flies from upper surface mines. (Barry has confirmed the identity of the mines pictured here, fortunately.)

241007 Aulagromyza tremulae (2)

This little fly has two broods per year, so mines can be found on Aspen (Populus tremula), and also on Black poplar (Populus nigra), in the early summer and again in early autumn. I haven’t managed to find any images of the adult fly so maybe I should try to breed one through to see what they look like. If that happens, there’ll definitely be a show-and-tell post.

Leafmines: Caloptilia rufipennella

23 Monday Sep 2024

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I was really pleased with my leaf-turning results on this particular Sycamore tree as I managed to find all three stages of this leaf-mining larva’s progress through the leaves. They illustrate quite well the breeding cycle of the little brown moth, Caloptilia rufipennella (you can see what it looks like on the UK Moths website).

240923 Caloptilia rufipennella (1)

After hatching from its egg, the larva chews away at the leaf, always in the angle between the veins, creating a small, often triangular-shaped blotch. The photos above show the upper and lower sides of the leaf where it has been feeding. The larva then moves to the tips of the lobes of the leaf where it creates a series of two or three cones, folding the tip of the lobe to create a little shelter in which to feed, each cone bigger than the previous one as the larva grows (as shown below).

240923 Caloptilia rufipennella (2)

And finally, once it’s fully grown, the larva weaves itself a little cocoon in which to pupate (see below). Interestingly, the UK Moths website says that Caloptilia rufipennella was discovered in Britain as recently as 1970 but is now quite common in most of England and Scotland. Wales doesn’t get a mention but the Welsh national database shows records starting in 1980 and now scattered across the country.

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Galls: Dasineura crataegi

04 Wednesday Sep 2024

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Teeny tiny mites have caused this damage to the tips of new branches on Hawthorn bushes (Crataegus species). Mites are so tiny that they can feed on individual plant cells, and it is this feeding that distorts and deforms the new leaf growth. These particular mites are called Dasineura crataegi, and the galls they create are known as Hawthorn button-top galls.

240904 Dasineura crataegi

Apparently, these galls are quite common but I’ve only seen them recently. All plant growth in the field where these Hawthorn bushes are growing is usually cut to the ground in late Autumn but that cut wasn’t down last year, possibly because it was too wet. This has allowed Hawthorn seedlings to grow where they usually wouldn’t, and it is on these young Hawthorns that the mites are thriving. It will be interesting to see if the galls appear again next year if the annual cut goes ahead.

Leafmines: Caloptilia stigmatella

02 Monday Sep 2024

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Another Monday, another new leaf mine – they’re never ending!

240902 Caloptilia stigmatella (1)

Now, this may not look like a mine but what’s happened is this: once hatched from its egg, the larva chewed an initial linear mine in the surface on the underside of the leaf – this species uses willow (Salix sp.) and poplar (Populus sp.). Then it munched out a blotch at the edge of the leaf and rolled the edge over to create a cone. As you see here, the larva will often create two or even three cones before it pupates.

240902 Caloptilia stigmatella (2)

These mines and cones are the work of the moth Caloptilia stigmatella. You can see more examples of the mines and get more information on the British Leafminers website here, and see photos of the adult of the species on the UK Moths website here.

Lime aphids

19 Monday Aug 2024

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Last Tuesday, on my way home from exploring a local park, I stopped to investigate the leaves of a Lime tree (Tilia species, not sure which one) as I’ve never really found anything of much interest on Limes. Well, that soon changed because the undersides of these leaves were awash with aphids, unsurprisingly Lime aphids (Eucallipterus tiliae), a species I’d never seen before.

240819 eucallipterus tiliae (1)

And when I checked on the Welsh biodiversity database later in the day, I was surprised to find only five previous Welsh records. As is the way with many small creatures though, I now believe these aphids are under-recorded as the following day, walking in the opposite direction, I found two more colonies. It seems more people need to become leaf-turners and leaf-botherers so we can get a clearer, more accurate picture of our insect populations.

240819 Eucallipterus tiliae (2)

If you’re interested in learning more about these aphids and their life cycle, the Influential Points website has an excellent page, with very clear images though slightly technical scientific information.