During a wander along the woodland rides of Casehill Woods last Saturday, I spent some time checking Oak leaves for whatever creatures might be living amongst them. One of my finds was this leafmine, a new one for me, made not by a moth or a fly as most leafmines are, but by a weevil.

A female Orchestes quercus weevil laid her egg in the central rib of the leaf (you can see the scar in the photo on the right, below). Once hatched, the larva munched its way down the side of the leaf rib, creating a thin gallery in the epidermis, before its more voracious feeding as it grew created a large blotch mine at the tip of the leaf.

The UK Beetles website has a photo of the adult weevil, a tiny brown hairy creature around 3mm long. Although I searched for any weevils amongst the Oak leaves (I also found the larval mines of another weevil, Orchestes hortorum, formerly O. signifier), I found none.