Room in my Shed

It's been a busy and strange few weeks in a lot of ways, but not least the fact that our youngest has buggered off to Bristol and is living in Uni digs whilst starting his degree in (literally) rocket science. We nipped down to check he was set-up okay a couple of weeks ago, but otherwise we're adjusting to not having him here and having a room in the house that is not being used. Our other two still live at home, but both work and both spend as much time out with their partners and mates as at home. It's pretty much the first time in 26 years that we've been able to do what we like, when we like, without having to plan around one or other of the kids. We're not used to it and haven't really capitalised on that yet!

The garden works are done and I've got a new bigger shed to sort out, along with some drainage that works well and a level patio. A lot of work ahead to actually make it look presentable and get some flowering plants in, and I've got space at the bottom of the garden for composting. I also intend to create some sort of raised pond - something for inverts, not amphibians!

One or two of you may well have noticed that I've not really mentioned or shared anything about my 2021 square listing. I've not consciously given up, but since July-ish it has pretty much drifted to the point that I may as well have done. I've struggled to maintain enthusiasm and am short on energy whilst being busy back at work. I also got well behind with transcribing garden light trap lists to keep up to date. Through September I've barely had time to even think about it. Yesterday I was in work tying up a few bits before I have some time off in the coming week. On the way home, I took a detour along the lane - the first time I've driven along there for a few week. The verges had been mowed and the fields harvested, so not a lot to look at. But I did nosy around at the trees and hedges for leafmines, finding quite a few on Ulmus, Norway Maple, Field Maple, Hawthorn, Blackthorn and bramble.

A while ago, when I was expecting to be a bit more enthused and busy in the field, a bought a cheap LED panel off of Amazon - this one. I figured that for around a tenner it was worth a punt to backlight leafmines with a bit more consistency and less pfaff than anything else I've tried over the years. Powered from USB and A4 sized it is also very light and portable. But - I obviously didn't read the blurb or look close enough at the images. I thought it would just be a lit screen but it has a built in eye protection plate - essentially when it is fully lit it looks like a load of perforations. Still perfectly good for backlighting mines, but not so great for photographing them. So I put it back in the box and forgot about until yesterday evening when I had a bag full of mines. I gave it a go and, actually, I'm quite happy with the results - albeit I need to edit the images a little more in photoshop though it really is quick and easy for me to do that.

Here's an example - a Blackthorn leaf with Stigmella plagicolella mines. The first image is directly off of the camera with no editing other than being re-sized. The second is the same image with the background screen cut out and otherwise my usual editing (light balance, sharpen a little and crop/resize).

I found quite a few Stigmella plagicolella mines on one particular Blackthorn - it's about the only one that is set beck enough from the road that it doesn't get quite so heavily flailed and so it has bigger leaves. Some were still tenanted, and one leaf in particular had many mines - at least eight, probably more.

I was also pleased to find Stigmella aceris on both Field Maple (first image) and Norway Maple (second and third image, alongside a Phyllonorycter joannisi mine).

The Ulmus sp. mines were most numerous though, with many Stigmella mines - some of which I could not work out but a few appeared a bit more distinct and I sought a bit of confirmation on the leafminers FB group to help make my mind up. The few tenanted mines were a bit more straightforward, with only Stigmella lemniscella still active out of the two species I had. I also found a couple with the distinct concentric circular start to the gallery.

Other mines were more consistent with Stigmella viscerella, showing a winding 'gut-like' pattern to the gallery and a slightly different frass pattern.

I found two different Phyllonorycter mines on Ulmus sp. - one a bit more pinched than the other. Several had pupal cocoons within the mine which made ID straightforward. The first mine has the dark stiff-looking pupal cocoon of Phyllonorycter tristrigella, and the second is Phyllonorycter schreberella with a neater and more delicate looking spun cocoon

Also found on Ulmus was this Bucculatrix albedinella mine.

Other mines found were Stigmella aurella and Coptotriche marginea on bramble, Phyllonorycter corylifoliella on hawthorn and Parornix finitimella on Blackthorn. Given I was only looking for c45mins I though that was not a bad effort. With some time in the week before we go away for a family break next weekend, I'll be looking for other mines and perhaps a few galls.

The garden trap has been on for a couple of nights, so I will have a few late autumn moths to share at some point too.

Hmm. That felt quite good getting that done and ready to post - perhaps the post-summer doldrums are over and things are getting better.