New year, first insect

04 Wednesday Jan 2023

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British leafmines, leaf-mining moth larvae, leaf-mining moths, Phyllonorycter leucographella

Appropriately enough for someone who likes finding leaf mines, the first insect I spotted this year was a leafminer, the larva of the moth Phyllonorycter leucographella. I blogged about these back in November 2020 (Leafmines: Phyllonorycter leucographella), when, as now, I found the mines on the orange-berried variety of Firethorn (Pyracantha coccinea). As the entry on this species on the British Leafminers website explains, the autumn generation of these larvae, like this one, overwinter in their mine, before pupating and emerging in the spring.

230104 Phyllonorycter leucographella on pyracantha

The larvae can also be found on many other plant species: the photo below shows the same moth species mining the leaf of a Plane tree in October 2021. In this case, you can see the empty pupal case still in the mine and the exuvia poking out at the top of the mine, from where the moth has emerged.

230104 Phyllonorycter leucographella on plane

Leafmines: Coleophora albitarsella

14 Monday Nov 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, plants

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blotch leafmines, British leafmines, case-bearing larva, Case-bearing moth, Coleophora albitarsella, leafmines on Ground-ivy, leafmining moth larvae

For months, both earlier this year and in recent weeks, I’ve been casting an eye over all the patches of Ground-ivy (Glechoma hederacea) I’ve noticed so I was delighted, last Friday, to finally find what I’ve been searching for, a new leafminer. Even better, as well as the tell-tale blotches on several leaves, when I turned over one leaf there was also an empty larval case.

221114 coleophora albitarsella (1)

These are the feeding signs for the larvae of the little moth Coleophora albitarsella (also known as the White-legged case-bearer, you can see the rather non-descript adult moth on the UK Moths website here), which munches on a wide variety of different plants (see full list on the British Leafminers website here). This moth species is relatively scarce in Glamorgan, with just a few sightings this millennium; in fact, it’s not very common anywhere in the UK, with just 109 records currently showing in the NBN Atlas (110, when mine is added) , so I feel rather privileged to have found these leafmines.

221114 coleophora albitarsella (2)

Leafmines: Stigmella speciosa

20 Tuesday Sep 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, trees

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Barred Sycamore pigmy moth larval mines, British leafmines, leafmines on Sycamore, leafmining moth larvae, Stigmella speciosa, Sycamore leafminer

While searching out Sycamore tarspot fungi on local Sycamore trees, I’ve also been keeping a look out for leafmines, specifically for the mines of the Barred Sycamore Pigmy moth, Stigmella speciosa. (You can see the very attractive adult moth on the UK Moths website by clicking here.)

220920 stigmella speciosa (1)

Although I’ve found the tarspot fungi, in varying quantities, on almost every Sycamore tree I’ve seen, the leafmines, though supposedly common, are not so easily spotted. Despite checking over a hundred Sycamore trees now, I’ve only found Stigmella speciosa mines in one location, where there were just three mines within the limits of my visibility. Perhaps more will turn up as I continue my search for Sycamore tarspot.

220920 stigmella speciosa (2)

Leafmines: Fenella nigrita

07 Monday Feb 2022

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British leafmines, Creeping cinquefoil, Fenella nigrita, Fenella nigrita larval mines, leafmines on cinquefoil, sawfly larvae, sawfly leafmines

When reviewing my leafmine records yesterday and comparing them to those I’ve blogged, I realised there are several I’ve yet to cover here. Most are spring- and summer-time finds so I’ll post about them at the appropriate time but this is one I found in December – I didn’t cover it then as I was in the middle of my A-to-Z end-of-year countdown.

220207 Fenella nigrita (1)

These are the leafmines of the sawfly Fenella nigrita. Its larval mines can be found on Agrimony and on the various cinquefoils – I found these on Creeping cinquefoil (Potentilla reptans). Though the British Leafminers website reports that the mines are normally seen in summer and autumn, I found these on 3 December and the mines are occupied (I’ve added a pointer to one of the larvae in the photo below right). Presumably the mild weather meant a longer breeding season for these sawflies, as with many other creatures.

Leafmines: Psychoides filicivora

03 Monday Jan 2022

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British leafmines, Hart's tongue, leaf-mining moths, leafmines on Hart's-tongue, moth larvae on Hart's-tongue, Psychoides filicivora

Once again, I was alerted to this little leafminer by a tweet from Rob Edmunds (@leafminerman), one of the brains behind the British Leafminers website, and I’ve now found it at three local sites where Hart’s-tongue fern (Phyllitis scolopendrium) is plentiful, though it can also be found on a couple of other fern species.

220103 Psychoides filicivora (1)

These are the larvae of Psychoides filicivora, a tiny brown moth (you can see the adult on the UK Moths website here), whose larvae munch on the fern fronds and hide away under little ‘nests’ of sporangia on the undersides of the fronds.

There is another very similar moth species that also lives on fern fronds, Psychoides verhuella – so far, I’ve only found P. filicivora – but the British Leafminers website has very good information on both, as well as an excellent side-by-side comparison image of their larvae.

Leafmines: on Columbine

08 Monday Nov 2021

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British leafmines, leaf-mining fly larvae, leafmines on Aquilejia, leafmines on Columbine, Phytomyza aquilegiae, Phytomyza minuscula

Here’s one – actually, two – for the gardeners out there, if you grow Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris, also known as Granny’s bonnets) in your flower beds (though you can also find this plant growing in the wild, where it’s an indicator of ancient woodland, or perhaps as a naturalised garden escapee).

211108 (1) phytomyza minuscula

This first leafmine has been created by a larva of the tiny fly, Phytomyza minuscula. As you can see, the mine takes the form of a wavering tunnel with the larva’s frass, in blobs and lines, easily visible.

And this second lot of mines, in the form of large blotches, have been created by a related fly species, Phytomyza aquilegiae. Often, these mines contain more than one larva – you may be able to spot the two larvae in the photo on the right above – and the purplish blotches in these mines are also typical.

Leafmines: Phyllonorycter platani

01 Monday Nov 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, trees

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British leafmines, leaf mines, leaf-mining moth, leaf-mining moth larvae, leafmines on Plane trees, Phyllonorycter platani, Plane trees

Another #LeafmineMonday, another new leafmine discovery – new to me, that is, not to science or Wales.

Top of leaf on the left; underside on the right

This is another mine that’s created by the larva of a moth, the rather handsome micro moth Phyllonorycter platani, whose larvae feed on the leaves of Plane trees. This moth only appeared in Britain 30 years ago – as it can be found in many countries around the globe, it’s not possible to say where it came from or how it got to London but, since 1989, it has colonised much of southern Britain. Of course, no one knows how it’s managed that either, though I did read some speculation on Twitter that, as the first Cardiff records were noted very near the main car and coach parks, the moths could well have hitched a ride on passing vehicles. As I’ve sometimes seen small moths on trains, I can quite believe that possibility.

Leafmines: on Himalayan balsam

27 Monday Sep 2021

Posted by sconzani in flowers, insects

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British leafmines, leaf-mining fly, leaf-mining fly larvae, leafmine on Himalayan balsam, leafmine on Indian balsam, leafminer, leafmines, Phytoliriomyza melampyga

Here’s a leafmine I hope you don’t find but you probably will, and easily. So, why do I hope you don’t? Because this mine is found on plants of the Impatiens species, including the highly invasive plant Himalayan balsam (or Indian balsam, as it’s officially known; i.e. Impatiens grandulifera).

210927 himalayan balsam

The leafminer is the larva of Phytoliriomyza melampyga, which creates an initial narrow twisting gallery that then widens into a variable whitish blotch. The larva’s frass can easily be seen within the mine. The adult fly is actually rather cute, with mostly yellow, a bit of black colouring. (You can see a short video of it on Wikipedia.)

210927 Phytoliriomyza melampyga

The NBN Atlas is currently showing just 192 records for this species in Britain, though, like most flies, it’s probably under-recorded.

Leafmines: a first for Wales!

06 Monday Sep 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, plants

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British leafmines, Broad-leaved everlasting pea, leaf-mining fly larvae, leafmine, leafmine on everlasting pea, leafminer, Liriomyza pisivora

Back on 18 August, I noticed Rob Edmunds’ post on Twitter about his find of Liriomyza pisivora mines on the Everlasting pea in his garden, which led me to check, the next day, the plants growing at Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park. I found plenty of leafmines but my finds were inconclusive – there are several species that form similar mines so I needed to get better photos, if possible transparent images that showed the frass distribution in the mines.

210906 Liriomyza pisivora (1)

So, when I visited Grangemoor again on 28 August to look for the Wasp spiders that had been reported the previous day, I also took the opportunity to look again at the Everlasting pea plants and took several more photographs. From them, I could see that in some of the mines the frass had been deposited as thin lines alternating from one side of gallery to the other.

Those images were good enough for Barry Warrington, the national recorder of the Agromyzidae family of flies, to confirm that I had indeed found Liriomyza pisivora and, a splendid surprise, that this was the first ever record of these flies in Wales!

210906 Liriomyza pisivora (4)

The host plant in this instance, Broad-leaved everlasting-pea (Lathyrus latifolius), is a relatively recent arrival at Grangemoor, though it is now sprawling abundantly over bramble bushes and along scrubby hedgerows in several parts of the park. So far, I’ve only found Liriomyza pisivora mines in one relatively small area but, perhaps, in time, they will spread throughout the park.