Brief Appearance

Blimey, a whole month or so since posting. I've not felt inclined to bother - not due to having nothing to post, I've just been either busy, distracted or so completely hacked off with the ridiculous and shambolic nature of our government that I couldn't be arsed. I will make no attempt to fully catch up, and in any case the majority of finds and activity have been leafmines. There also won't be any posts in the next couple of weeks or so as we're off on a long overdue holiday for which my post-cancer travel insurance is not far off the cost of a typical summer low-star package holiday. Our last proper holiday was a Caribbean cruise in late 2018 - and life since then has revolved around health and covid restrictions. We're now heading off on a transatlantic cruise to the Caribbean which somehow seems symbolic.

By far the best two moths in the garden were unexpected ....

This fallen leaf from the garden Silver Birch was a chance find on 16/10/2022 - the only one with a 'green island' meriting closer inspection which revealed a tenanted mine. Initially it looked quite short and appeared to be starting to form a blotch after the initial contorted gallery which brough Ectoedemia minimella to mind - though that would be very unlikely. I held onto the leaf and after a couple of days the mine had developed into a gallery with some scalloping along the edge. This is Stigmella luteella - new for me and the garden.

The other highlight was this Caloptilia sp. to light on 03/10/2022 ....

This will need a gen det, but I am pretty sure that this will be confirmed as the first VC55 record of Caloptilia honoratella - needless to say new for me and the garden too. This is one that has fairly quickly established itself into the UK since arriving in 2016 and seems to be spreading - so not entirely unexpected as such, I just thought it would be a few more years before getting this far.

I'll spare you another load of leafmine images showing tenanted mines of new-to-me Stigmella spp. etc.

Blaming everyone in the hospitals

Blaming everyone at the bottom of the English Channel

Blaming everyone who doesn't look like a fried animal