Q is for Quercus

22 Wednesday Dec 2021

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galls on oak, moth larvae on Oak, Oak leaves, oak tree, Quercus species

When I began this alphabetical countdown, I thought I might struggle with some of the letters but Q was easy: Quercus, the Latin for Oak tree. The mighty Oak features often in this blog: its leaves for their autumn colours, for the galls they support, for the insect larvae they feed, for the birds that nest in the Oak’s branches, for the fungi that grow beneath this amazing tree … and so much more. This year, amongst other topics, we’ve had Oak leaf burst; a new gall I was lucky enough to find; and some mothy goodness. I’m sure the Oak will provide further wonders in the future.

211222 quercus

Oak: mothy goodness

27 Thursday May 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, trees

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Tags

Brindled green, British moths, Case-bearing moth, Coleophora flavipennella, Coleophora lutipennella, Dryobotodes eremite, moth larvae, moth larvae on Oak, moths on Oak, Oak leaves

As you can see from the last two days’ blogs, there was much to be found on Oak leaves in my local woodlands on Sunday. These are two more finds, both relating to moths. This first was found on the same tree as the Purple hairstreak larva and, thanks to some help from Twitter moth-ers, I can tell you this is the larva of the Brindled green moth (Dryobotodes eremite) (you can see the adult moth on the UK Moths website here).

210527 brindled green larva

The wonderfully crafted cases in the photos below contain the larvae of either Coleophora lutipennella or Coleophora flavipennella – apparently, it’s not possible to determine the species without waiting for the adult moths to hatch and then dissecting their genitalia, which I’m not going to do. I’m happy just to admire their silk-weaving skills.