Leaf mines: Phytomyza ilicis

23 Tuesday Feb 2021

Tags

British leaf mines, Holly, Holly leaf-miner, Ilex aquifolium, leaf mines, leaf-mining fly larvae, Phytomyza ilicis

The tale of the Holly leaf miner (Phytomyza ilicis) is a tangled one. Way back in December 2016, I blogged about the leaf-mining life of this tiny fly’s larvae. Then, early in 2020, doubt was cast on the true identity of this leaf miner, when two scientists published a paper, stating that, through genital examination of one particular Phytomyza ilicis specimen, they had determined there were in fact two very similar species to be found in Britain. Of course, this called into question the true identification of all prior records, and no subsequent records could be confirmed without genital examination of specimens.

At that stage, I stopped recording leaf mines on Holly. But now I can start again because the work of those earlier scientists has recently been disproved. The organiser of the Agromyzidae Recording Scheme (the family to which Phytomyza ilicis belongs) re-examined the questionable specimen and found the genitals had actually been damaged, which had led to them being wrongly identified.

So, until that ‘other’ Holly leaf miner (Phytomyza jucunda) makes its way from Europe to Britain and so long as the mines look similar to the various ones I’ve included here, it is safe to record the Holly leaf mines we see as Phytomyza ilicis.

You can access the splendid new website of the Agromyzidae Recording Scheme here, and read more about the story of the Holly leaf miner in a recent newsletter here.

Holly flowers

24 Sunday Jan 2021

Posted by sconzani in flowers, plants, trees

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

British trees, Holly, Holly flowers, Ilex aquifolium, male Holly flowers, winter flowers

Holly flowers are tiny, tucked away in the crooks of branches, inconspicuous behind the mass of glossy evergreen leaves. And that’s my excuse for not having noticed them until quite recently.

210124 holly flowers (1)

I’ve since read that Holly (Ilex aquifolium) is dioecious, which, if you’ve been following this blog for a while, you might remember from my March 2020 post, Wild word : dioecious, means that Holly’s male and female flowers occur on separate trees. I think the flowers I found are male, as the female flowers have small green spheres in their centres, which, if pollinated, would grow in to the red berries we all associate with the Holly tree.

360/366 Be merry, safely!

25 Friday Dec 2020

Posted by sconzani in plants, winter

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Holly, Holly berries

After a difficult year for most of us, today will be an even more difficult day for many, unable to see their loved ones and friends. But, Christmas will come again and things will eventually get better so, please, be merry safely today!

201225 Xmas holly

68/365 Leaf skeleton

09 Saturday Mar 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, leaves, nature, plants

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Holly, Holly leaf, Holly leaf skeleton, leaf ribs, leaf skeleton, ribs in leaves

190309 leaf skeleton

I find leaf skeletons fascinating. The structure of a leaf, in particular its veins and midrib, are usually hidden, or at least made less obvious by the tissue of the leaf. But, when the leaf has detached from its tree and the tissue has disintegrated, the structure that remains is wonderfully sculptural, like this Holly leaf I discovered in a local park.

Nature’s Christmas tree

17 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, trees

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

berries, Callicarpa, Christmas baubles, Christmas tree, fruit, Holly, Mahonia

You’d think with the shortest day fast approaching that the landscape would be dull and grey and completely lacking in colour. But it’s not! If you look around, you’ll find the cotoneaster trees loaded with red berries, and holly trees, too, bursting with shiny red fruit. In my local park, the Mahonia bushes are flowering in brilliant yellow starbursts, and the Callicarpa shrubs are covered in stunning lilac berries that seem almost unreal and man-made, rather than something Ma Nature created. I thought I’d put some of Nature’s beautiful baubles together to make my very own ‘unreal’ Christmas tree!

Holly leaf-miner

10 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, trees

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

biological recording, Holly, Holly leaf-miner, Phytomyza ilicis, SEWBReC

Following on from yesterday’s post where I (hopefully) sent you all on a quest to find the Holly parachute fungus, I thought I’d kill two biological records with one outing, and also get you to look for another species related specifically to holly.

161210-holly-leaf-miner-1

This is the Holly leaf-miner (Phytomyza ilicis), a small fly that lays its eggs inside the leaves of holly. ‘Inside’ may sound strange, but holly leaves are relatively thick and leathery so, once the eggs hatch, they make the perfect home for the fly’s larvae, which live out their lives feeding on the flesh of the leaves and making a little home for themselves in the process. Their feeding creates multi-coloured blotches on the leaves so, although you’ll probably never see the fly and probably not even the larvae (unless you slice open a leaf at the right time of year), you can always tell where they’ve been. Once they’ve eaten their fill, the larvae pupate inside their leafy homes, then open a small escape hole once their transformation is complete and fly away to start the process all over again.

Co-incidentally, the Holly leaf-miner is species of the month (really, two months – November and December) with SEWBReC, the South East Wales Biodiversity Records Centre. Like yesterday’s Holly parachute fungus, there are few biological records of the leaf-miner but it is almost certainly just under-recorded because, once you start looking for those tell-tale blotches, you quickly discover it’s almost everywhere. So, get looking and recording!