Birds, Leps, Observations & Generalities - the images and ramblings of Mark Skevington. Sometimes.

Sunday 6 September 2020

New Rose (Mine)

Today, so far, has been a chilled affair. Up early to empty the moth trap, watching an old DVD copy of  Dune from start to finish (on my recently acquired cheap DVD player with HD upscaling) whilst the family had a long lie in, a bit more garden clearance, cooking a roast and having my Mum over for dinner, and quaffing most of a bottle of wine to myself. Time for a coffee in front of this screen and to reflect on yesterday afternoon when I headed over to Ketton Quarry.

Whilst this is by far my favourite place in VC55 (I'm sure I've mentioned before), it is a place I usually visit in spring and summer. It's not a place I'd usually go to before mid-March or after mid-August, with maybe a couple of occasions when I've moth-trapped there later in the autumn. There is no real rationale for this, and it is perhaps more reflective of my usual apathy for anything after late summer or before the early Spring.

When I arrived, having driven there in sunshine, there was the distinct greyness of a looming shower but thankfully this passed quickly and I enjoyed a progressively more sunny and warm afternoon. I was virtually alone; one dog-less woman and child out walking, and a dog-less bloke in wellies out striding purposefully were the only people seen in the c3hrs I enjoyed there. I carried my sweep net, but mainly I was intent on scouring various trees, bushes and low-growing vegetation for mines and galls. The profusion of flowering herbs and vegetation from my previous visit had quickly become a profusion of seed-heads and berry-laden shrubbery.


Perhaps predictably, the sweep net did not throw up too much diversity, but with a bit of patience there was distinct but tiny movement within the profusion of seeds and I picked up a few tiny beetles including several Cartodere bifasciata and a few bugs including Plagiognathus chrysanthemi. But it was the leaves of various plants that threw most of the interest. I came home with a bulging bagful.

In particular I was paying attention to any Rosa spp. looking for a particular lepidopteran leafmine - Coptotriche angusticollella. So far this has only been recorded in VC55 from Ketton Quarry. Whilst we have relatively few people in the VC that are likely to pay any attention to leafmines, they are fairly evenly spready out around the city and county so I think that this genuinely is a scarce species here. Anyway I must have looked at hundreds of rose leaves without a sniff and then suddenly I found a couple on the same bush. Even better, both were tenanted ....


There is no frass in the mine, but both had a couple of small holes where the larva can deposit frass out of the mine - absolutely spot-on for the Tischeriidae. I'll try and rear through.

Another mine was this large blotch on Birch, which turned out to be three separate tenanted mines ....

The visible spots on the larva confirm this is the sawfly Fenusa pumila.

I also found mines on hawthorn, Colts-foot, Travellers Joy, knapweed and Rosebay Willowherb. Galls on Rosa spp., Goat Willow and lime added to the interest.

Whilst walking past a particularly inviting clump of Travellers Joy, an idle swipe with the sweep net yielded a relatively large geometrid larva - though more targeted swipes brought no others. I'm fairly sure that this is a Fern, though the differences between it and Small Waved Umber are fairly subtle so I will try to rear. A new larva for me either way.


I pointed the camera at this Hawthorn Shieldbug nymph nestled up on a hawthorn leaf ....


.... and also at this smooth 'pea' gall on Rosa spp. which, it turns out, I can't identify without rearing and keying the gall-causing wasp.


I've still got a few bits to try and squeeze and ID from, but overall it was interesting to focus on a few different plants.

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