Hazel

Yesterday evening I had an hour or so to kill in Market Bosworth with Nichola, so we had a wander around the country park. Never been there before but it's quite a big area, and there is plenty of tree diversity so a good chance to have a look for a few leafmines. Of course big tree diversity coupled with botanical ineptitude doesn't necessarily help, but I found a few on leaves that I was confident about at least. I found (I think) three species on hazel .....

First up, here's a couple of leaves and close-ups showing what I think are the vacated mines of Stigmella microtheriella. These are thin gallery mines, with linear frass in the early part of the mine.

I also found loads of these tiny blister mines that were all tenanted. I think these are the very early mines of Phyllonorycter coryli, and the blister will get bigger.

Finally, I found this vacated mine that looks good for Phyllonorycter nicellii.

Upperside

Underside

Whilst poking around the trees, I found this sitting out in the open and easily managed to pot it up for a snap.

Roeslerstammia erxlebella