On the Bramble

13 Wednesday Jun 2018

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, wildflowers

Tags

#30DaysWild, #plantsforpollinators, #WildflowerHour, 30 Days Wild, bees, bramble, bumblebees, flies, hoverflies, Rubus fruticosus agg

Last Sunday, on #WildflowerHour, the challenge was to find #plantsforpollinators, i.e. to find wildflowers that support a variety of the insects that act as pollinators. I had found several different insects on Bramble flowers last week so posted a series of photos that showed them. And that gave me the idea for day 13 of #30DaysWild, namely to see what insects I could find on the local Bramble bushes. It was overcast and a bit cooler today, so I didn’t see as many butterflies as last week, but there were bees and bumblebees, flies and hoverflies, one butterfly, and a number of bugs and beetles. Here they are …

Leafminer on bramble

29 Monday Jan 2018

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, plants

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

bramble, British micro moth, British moths, Golden pigmy moth, leaf mines, leafminer, moth larvae in leaf mines, Rubus fruticosus agg, Stigmella aurella

Following on from my Leafmines 101 post and the one about leafminers on Hart’s tongue fern, here’s another leaf mine I think I can identify (note the ‘I think’!).

180129 Stigmella aurella on bramble (1)

The reason I’m hesitant about positively IDing this one is because there are two species of micro moth whose larvae produce very similar mines on bramble (Rubus fruticosus agg.) leaves. One is the Glossy bramble pigmy moth (Stigmella splendidissimella) but the more likely in this case is the Golden pigmy moth (Stigmella aurella).

Though it’s very common and widespread in Britain, I’ve never seen this tiny moth (images on the UK moths website here) but the mines its larvae create on bramble leaves are everywhere I look. As you can see, the mine starts out small but, as the larva within chews and chews, so it widens its mine to accommodate its expanding girth.

You can see if the inhabitant is still at home by holding the leaf up to the light. Most of these seemed to be empty, as you can see from the images below (the central black lines are the frass). I’ve never actually opened a mine to have a look at the larva when it has been inside but, if I did, I would see an orangey-yellow grub with a brownish tinge to its head (there are images on the Bladmineerders website here).

180129 Stigmella aurella on bramble (4)

Bramble or blackberry?

26 Friday Aug 2016

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, plants, wildflowers

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

autumn fruit, blackberry, bramble, Rubus fruticosus agg, Rubus species, wild fruit

First, the glorious flowers: some look like crushed paper tissue, others like crinkled pieces of silk. They range in colour from bleached white through parchment with the merest blush of pink to a pink that reminds me of the sticky candyfloss I ate as a child at the local fair.

Once the busy little pollinators have done their work, the fruit begins to develop and my taste buds start to stir as I look forward to the delicious juicy treats to come. First, the clusters of little green globes and then, as they ripen in the summer sun, the tinges of red appear, hinting at the lusciousness to come.

And then one day, when I’m out on one of my wanders, I spot it, the very first black berry. Will it still be a little sour and will it flood my mouth with those delectable full fruit flavours of perfect ripeness?

160826 Rubus fruticosus agg (9)

Here in Britain they are called brambles, in my New Zealand homeland we called them blackberries and, in scientific terms, they are all grouped together under the unprepossessing name of Rubus fruticosus agg. Agg stands for aggregate, as in a grouping together of a range of very closely related biological organisms, because Rubus fruticosus includes a myriad of hybridisations. But, whatever you call them, for me they are one of the things I most love about late summer and, yes, I have already eaten my first yummy blackberries of 2016.