Leafmines: Coleophora badiipennella

25 Monday Oct 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, trees

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Case-bearing moth, Coleophora badiipennella, leaf-mining moth, leafminer, leafmines on Wych elm, Pale elm case-bearer

This might not look like much but I’ve been looking for one of these for perhaps a year, at least during the months when it was around to be found. And if I hadn’t been looking closely at the leaves of this Wych elm, I could so easily have missed it. These are the leafmine and the case of Coleophora badiipennella, the Pale Elm Case-bearer (click on the link here to see the adult moth on the UK Moths website).

According to the British Leafminers website, the larva:

initially forms a gallery along the midrib, which then goes out along a vein (see photo). The end of this gallery is then excised to construct the first case. It then feeds close to this and makes several small mines …

211025 coleophora badiipennalla (2)

If you look at my photo above, you can see where the larva has made a second mine below the first – you can see the tiny hole where it would have attached itself – before moving to the third mine where it was then feeding. I haven’t been able to find much information about pupation but I presume the larva remains in its case, falls to the ground either still attached to its leaf when the leaf falls or after detaching itself, and over-winters on the ground. It seems many of these leafminers are not very well studied … yet.

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.

Leaf mines: Phytomyza chaerophylli

02 Tuesday Feb 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, plants

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Cow parsley, leaf mines, leaf mining fly, leaf-mining fly larvae, leafminer, Phytomyza chaerophylli

It may be winter but there are still leaf mines to check for, if you live in a location where the Cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) is already springing up – here in coastal south Wales, I’ve even spotted a few flowers, though the official flowering period is April to June.

The leaf miner is a fly, Phytomyza chaerophylli, whose larvae munch their way through the leaves of several umbellifer species and can usually be seen from early spring right through to the end of summer, sometimes even earlier and later if the temperatures are mild enough. You can read more about these leaf mines and see more images on the UK Fly Mines website.

Wild word: pupa

20 Wednesday Jan 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, plants

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British leaf mines, Cerodontha iridis, leaf-mining fly pupae, leafminer, pupa, pupae of Cerodontha iridis

Pupa: Noun (pl. pupae); An insect in its inactive immature form between larva and adult, e.g. a chrysalis; Origin: late 18th century modern Latin, from Latin pupa ‘girl, doll’ (Oxford Dictionary).

210120 pupa cerodontha iridis (2)

I don’t find pupae very often so I was very pleased to find these – all the black oblong shapes, not just the one outside the leaf – the pupae of the leaf-mining fly Cerodontha iridis. More about that creature in my blog post of 7 December.

210120 pupa cerodontha iridis (1)

349/366 Leaf mines: Amauromyza verbasci

14 Monday Dec 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, plants, winter

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Amauromyza verbasci, Buddleja davidii, leaf mines, leaf-mining fly larvae, leafminer

It’s #LeafmineMonday again on social media so here’s another leaf mine to look for when you’re out walking. And this is an easy plant to recognise because I’m sure everyone knows what the Butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii) looks like, right?

201214 Amauromyza verbasci (1)

These mines on Buddleja leaves, which start as a narrow corridor and quickly develop into a large blotch, are caused by the larvae of a tiny fly, Amauromyza verbasci. The fly also lays its eggs on several other plants, including Mullein and Common figwort.

201214 Amauromyza verbasci (3)

Mines can be seen from June to November, so it’s almost too late to see these now. The Buddleja plants in my area are already generating new growth but, as you can see from the photo above, the mines may still be seen on the older leaves before they drop.

201214 Amauromyza verbasci (2)

According to the UK Fly mines website, Amauromyza verbasci is widespread in Britain, though I have to say that I have only seen these mines once, despite a lot of looking at Buddleja bushes. And this sighting was a particularly lucky one for me, as this turned out to be the 1000th species (of flora and fauna) I had recorded on my local biodiversity records centre database.

342/366 Leaf mines: Cerodontha iridis

07 Monday Dec 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, plants, winter

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Cerodontha iridis, Iris foetidissima, Iris leaf miner, leaf mines, leaf-mining fly larvae, leafminer, Stinking iris

When I first recorded this leaf mine (found on 24 November at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, where there is rather a lot of it in one particular area), it was named ‘Record of the Week’ by SEWBReC, the local biodiversity records centre, and hailed as only the third Welsh record (though the national recorder for this species later corrected this, as it seems several records from north Wales had not been added to the Welsh database at that stage). Since then, I’ve found these mines in five more locations, proving that once again this is an under-recorded leaf-mining species.

201207 Cerodontha iridis (1)

These leaf mines were made on Stinking iris (Iris foetidissima) by the fly Cerodontha iridis, and they can also be found in Britain on other Iris species, though I haven’t seen any of those. The mines occur in early autumn, though they can still be seen on Iris leaves later than that – I’m seeing them now, in early winter. Often the adult fly lays several eggs on one leaf and, after the larvae hatch and start munching, they create blotch mines, which may be quite large when several mines coalesce.

You can read more detailed information about this species and see some excellent images, including close-ups of the larvae and their puparia, on the Bladmineerders website here.

201207 Cerodontha iridis (4)

338/366 Leaf mines: Acidia cognata

03 Thursday Dec 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, plants, wildflowers

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Acidia cognata, British flies, leaf mines, leaf-mining fly larvae, leaf-mining larvae, leafminer, Petasites fragrans, Winter heliotrope

Though the UK Fly mines website says the leaf mines of the little orange fly Acidia cognata are made in October-November, I’m sure the mines will still be visible this month, and possibly further into the winter, so this is one to look out for now when you’re out walking.

201203 acidia cognata (1)

One of the plants this fly mines – this is the one I’ve found these mines on – is Winter heliotrope (Petasites fragrans), which is particularly noticeable now, due to the pretty pink flowers that appear from November to February. Other favoured larval plants are Butterbur (Petasites hybridus), a plant very similar to Winter heliotrope, and Colt’s-foot (Tussilago farfara), the leaves of which don’t appear till after the flowers, so approximately from April onwards.

After hatching, the Acidia cognata larvae create a corridor on the upper surface of the leaf. As the larvae grow, the mine widens and eventually becomes more of a blotch, especially if there are several larvae on a single leaf and their mines meet. I’ve found these mines in two local patches of Winter heliotrope but not found any sign of them in other locations, so distribution does seem a little random. If you spot any, please do record your sightings as, like many leaf-miners where the adult flies are not often seen, this species is probably under-recorded.

331/366 Leafmines: Phyllonorycter leucographella

26 Thursday Nov 2020

Posted by sconzani in autumn, insects, plants

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British moths, Firethorn leaf miner, leaf mines, leaf mines on Pyracantha, leaf-mining larvae, leaf-mining moth, leafminer, moth larvae, moth larvae in leaf mines, Phyllonorycter leucographella

I stumbled across these leaf mines by accident but I simply can’t resist including them … because the tiny striped larvae are so darn cute!

201126 phyllonorycter leucographella (1)

These are the larvae of the moth Phyllonorycter leucographella, the adult of which is also rather striking – you can see photos of it on the UK Moths website here. As the website reports, this moth is a recent arrival to Britain, first spotted in Essex just 40 years ago, but for such a small creature – its wingspan is only 7-9mm – it’s managed to fly and settle far and wide, from Yorkshire in the north of England to Pembrokeshire in the west of Wales, and all points in between. This may partly be due to the fact that its larvae feed on many garden plants: I found an abundance of leaf mines on an orange-berried variety of Firethorn (Pyracantha coccinea), which explains why the moth’s common name is Firethorn leaf miner.

201126 phyllonorycter leucographella (2)

201126 phyllonorycter leucographella (3)

201126 phyllonorycter leucographella (4)

201126 phyllonorycter leucographella (5)

As you can see from my pictures, the larval ‘mine’ is like a blister, centred over the midrib on the upper side of the leaf. The larva, which, with black blobs on a white body, is very distinctive, can often be seen through the membrane of the mine, especially when it’s feeding at the edge of the blister. You can read more about this leaf miner, its life cycle and preferred larval plants on the UK Fly Mines website here.

201126 pyracantha

293/366 Stigmella aceris

19 Monday Oct 2020

Posted by sconzani in autumn, insects, leaves, trees

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British moths, Field maple, leaf mines on maple, leaf-mining moth larvae, leafminer, Norway maple, Scarce Maple pigmy, Stigmella aceris

I’ve been hunting for leaf mines in recent days, the mines made by the larvae of the micro moth Stigmella aceris, which can be found at this time of year on the leaves of Norway and Field maples. Unfortunately, I haven’t made any finds of my own but my Twitter pal Gareth had the honour of finding the first mines in the Vale of Glamorgan last week so I went and checked out his find site to get a look at the mines for myself.

201019 leafmine (1)

According to the UK Moths website, this moth was classified as rare until 40 years ago, when it began increasing its range ‘dramatically’. It can now be found throughout central and southern England, and also in south Wales – it was found for the first time in Cardiff in November 2019.

201019 leafmine (2)

I’ve never seen the adult moth, which has the common name of Scarce maple pigmy – and probably never will – but you can see a photo of it on the British Lepidoptera weebly site here.