Bags of Life

Back in October, I kept hold of a good few tenanted mines to try and rear. Rearing anything overwinter is tricky, and although I have successfully reared quite a few leaf miners these have all been early broods or species that overwinter as adults. Keeping mines over winter needs them to be in pretty natural conditions outdoors. I picked up a tip from Bluesky about using fine mesh net bags, the sort of thing that may be used for fruit/veg. A quick look on Amazon and I found some suitable bags - albeit in a fluorescent green ....

I transferred all of the mined leaves from the tubs I usually keep them in to the bags, labelled up and promptly hung them low underneath a big trug at the bag of the garden. Here they were maybe 8" off of the ground, protected from rain and snow but in now way protected from cold and wind. Fingers crossed, and there they stayed until last weekend. There was no sign of life in any of them at that point - aside from one or two barkflies that must have been on the leaves in the first place. I brought them indoors on Sunday and they've been in the office away from the radiator though obviously warming up more than they would in the garden.

Today I've had the first successes. x3 Phyllonorycter sp. have emerged from a bag that I'd labelled as Malus? from Fosse Meadows on 23/10/2024. This is because those leaves were collected from the ground next to a naked twiggy small tree that I had no clue what it was, but the leaves looked about right for apple despite being yellowy/brown. These all had 'green island' early Phyllonorycter mines. The emerged moths are all pretty much the same and look right for Phyllonorycter blancardella - TBC via gen det as P. hostis cannot be reliably separated by the mine or adult.

Almost certainly Phyllonorycter blancardella

The other success was slightly more exciting and certainly a bit smarter looking, from Grey Alder and also from Fosse Meadows on 23/10/2024.

Phyllonorycter strigulatella

I'm hopeful of more emergences in the next week or so.

This is about emergency, which is only only letter different ....

Mineur de feuilles

Weather had been cold and crap all week so nothing new to write about. But in the vain hope of trying to maintain some blogging momentum of sorts, here's a few randomly selected leaf mines from last autumn. I was quite pleased with capturing photos using the LED light pad I have to backlight the mines, and creating two or three photo collages to show the overall mine habitus and details of the mine and/or larva. I did loads of these (see my Bluesky feed), this selection is just because they are still on my desktop rather than neatly filed away ....

Not a moth, this one is coleopteran - Rhamphus oxyacanthae

Fosse Meadows 23/10/2024

Stigmella tiliae

Burbage Common 14/09/2024

Stigmella oxyacanthella

Hill Hole Quarry 20/09/2024

Stigmella atricapitella (plus x2 Phyllonorycter sp. mines)

Fosse Meadows 23/10/2024

Stigmella catharticella

Fosse Meadows 23/10/2024

Stigmella ruficapitella

Hill Hole Quarry 20/09/2024

 This track has got nothing to do with leaf mines, other than the title shares three letter with leaf ....

Bagging a Midget

I'm not referring to some below average height Monarch. Last Friday evening a local recorder Hazel Graves posted some leaf mines on our VC55 Facebook group that she believed to be Phyllonorycter pastorella. I confirmed that these did indeed look right, that there were no previous VC55 records and that this was a species only added to the British List in 2014. The post did not give any details for the record at that point. Given that it was a likely VC55 first I suggested posting to the British Leafminers group for confirmation, whilst also asking for the details.

By early afternoon on Saturday, I'd not seen a response and so decided to go out and have a nosey around at a likely site. I figured the Soar Valley was as good a place to check as any, but I was short on time so needed somewhere I could park up and check out quickly. Narborough Bog and Everard's Meadows are closer to home but would need a bit of a walk before hitting likely prime habitat, whereas Aylestone Meadows is a little further but I could be searching within a couple of minutes of parking up. So off I headed, and literally five minutes after parking I found mines on a big hybrid crack willow of some sort. I carried on searching and within half an hour or so I'd found it at three spots alongside the canal, all in the same tetrad and all on long-leaved crack willow type trees. Whilst I was out, Hazel posted some details: actually found the previous weekend at - Aylestone Meadows, albeit further north closer to the King Power stadium but within the same tetrad as those I found. Confirmed by Rob Edmunds.

I collected a handful of mines in the hope I'd find one tenanted. I ended up with a couple tenanted with fresh pupae intact, and a couple vacated. Here's an example showing the relatively large mine with a single crease and feeding marks on the upper surface:

When backlit, the pupa is visible in the mine laying pretty much parallel to the crease, with all the frass piled up at the other end.

I was confident that one would emerge fairly soon, and have been checking them every morning, late afternoon and again before going to bed. Last night, I found one had emerged at some point during the evening ....

Phyllonorycter pastorella - needless to say a new moth for me

Not a typical shiny Phyllonorycter with white streaks and strigulae, but quite smart all the same. I mentioned this being added to the British List in 2014 - that was when mines were found in the grounds of Buckingham Palace. Hence the daft (unused) vernacular Royal Midget. Since the weekend, after alerting other leaf mine recorders, it's been found near to Burbage which is much further south and well away from the first site. I suspect this will turn out to be fairly well spread and established within a year or two.

I also found some mines on Ash at last after having had a blind spot for them for a long while, and then found more on Sunday during a bit more square-bashing.

Cone and vacated cocoon within of Caloptilia cuculipennella at Aylestone Meadows

Early-stage leaf mine of Caloptilia cuculipennella at Stapleton

Blotch mines of Gracillaria syringella at Stapleton

Square bashing

There are a handful of leaf-mining species that are so ubiquitous that any square with no records of these is likely (though not 100% certainly) to have no records of any leaf-miners. So the following was shared with recorders, showing all VC55 tetrads with leaf mine records of Parornix anglicella, Stigmella aurella and Lyonetia clerkella combined:

On Monday I headed out for a couple of hours or so in the middle of the day to respectfully avoid the box shuffling and do a bit of square bashing. My plan was to find something in the two blank squares in SP58, and then head across to SP39 and at least cover off the squares that were fully or mostly in VC55 (alongside the Warks border). I wasn't going to traipse all over pathways and farmland - this was going to be a quick hit by stopping on roadways and verges, a quick 15 minutes or so survey and move on.

A squint at the map suggested that one of the two squares in SP58 would be a bit sparse with only one roadway through a corner, but the other looked a fair bet. This turned out to be as expected, with 13 species found in SP5684 but only 3 in SP5884. Amongst these were nothing unexpected or notable. 

I then headed along the A5 to SP39 with good intent, only to find that the further west I went the greyer and eventually wetter it became. I'd not bothered at all to check the weather forecast. I turned off the A5 into SP3296 and pulled up just outside of Witherley. By then the drizzle had turned to rain and then stopped again. A quick look around yielded 10 species quite easily, before a light drizzle started again. Back in the car, and I headed into SP3098 where I noted an amusingly named King Dick's Hole. I stopped near a junction just west of Ratcliffe Bridge and found a slightly different mix of species, 11 in all including Bedellia somnulentella and Chrysoesthia drurella. After a couple of sarnies in the car, in another shower, I headed east along the road through Ratcliffe Culey across to Upton in SP3698. From there I intended to head south-west towards Atterton and then south to Fenny Drayton - hence covering the five main squares. The weather though had other ideas and within five minutes of getting out of the car at Upton (during which I picked up 6 species) the rain properly set in and I lost enthusiasm. 

Overall I added records to five previously blank tetrads, with 48 records of 23 species in total. Had I managed to find any tenanted mines on oak it could have been more, and if there been any birch, beech or apple. I'll head back over to some of these squares again at some point for a better look.

View north at SP57148422

View north-north-east at SP31919979

View north-north-east at SP36399970

Chrysoesthia drurella

Bedellia somnulentella

I also found quite a few Stigmella mines on Alder at Witherley - sadly though all vacated so indeterminable. Certainly one I'll be looking out for in the next few weeks.

Earlier in the morning, I'd emptied the garden trap and grabbed a few snaps. The catch included another garden tick that I've been expecting after recent colonisation and spread - a Cypress Pug sitting on the egg boxes propped up against the outside of the trap. I thought that would be the only highlight, but on lifting out the funnel there sat a spanking Vestal - only the second for the garden (first was in 2013).

Cypress Pug

Vestal

Satellite

Whilst grabbing some foliage from the front garden border to plonk the Cypress Pug on, I stumbled on this larva which I'm going to try and rear far enough to ID ....

"I've been a long-term disappointment to myself, but it hits like a hammer when I'm that to someone else. And the circle doesn't fit its little square, it bulges with opportunity. Bulges"

You're Mine, You're Mine, You're,

As part of my recovery, my walks from home have gradually turned from short shuffling ambles to longer strolls with a bit of pace. I've not really been going anywhere with intent, it's just to stretch the legs and get some life back into muscles. But of course it doesn't take long before longer walks turn to walk-stop-walk sequences whilst looking at some shrubbery or other. And so it is that I've picked up a few leafmines over the last few days - mostly expected, but good to get the eye in for some proper effort later in the month. Almost everything so far vacated.

These three all on crab apple: Leucoptera malifoliella, Callisto denticulella and Bohemannia pulverosella.

Stigmella aceris all over the place on both Field Maple as here, and also on Norway Maple.

Etainia louisella on Field Maple keys. Actually this may be tenanted but almost impossible to dissect out without destroying it.

Perhaps the only one that wasn't entirely expected, I found a load of Phyllocnistis saligna mines on White Willow growing alongside the Whetstone Brook between the local park and school. I've not walked along there for a good few years, and realised that aside from these willows there are some osiers and some healthy looking oaks that must have been planted when the park was created c30years ago.

My walks have mainly been in the early evening after the sun has started to dip, rather than in the full blown sunshine ....

Life on Slate

Back to yesterday: after leaving Burbage Wood I headed along the motorway north straight to Swithland Wood southern car park. If I was going to have any luck with pheromone lures for oak spp. this was as good a place as any. Immediately as I got out of the car I noted the masses of Great Wood-rush and had a quick nosey. Within a meter of starting I found the mine I was looking for ....

Elachista regificella

There is so much of the stuff here that I imagine sweeping at the right time would easily yield adults, rather than trying to rear through.

I headed into the wood to the big slate mound and biggest quarry in the middle, and deployed the pheromone trap in anticipation. Whilst waiting, I noted masses of Adela reaumurella dancing around the oaks, all too flightly and quick to grab a snap. I also thought I'd look at some more leaves and add a couple of Eriocraniidae to the list for the day. Dyseriocrania subpurpurella was decidedly easy, and especially so compared to the earlier effort on hazel! Birch mines were not quite so easy to fine, but I found a few. Eriocrania sangii is easy enough due to the dark larva, the others though are not so straightforward. The mines I found could only really be E. semipurpurella or E. unimaculella, and the couple of larvae I checked match Eriocrania semipurpurella. Not that I managed to catch a useable snap, but the lack of darkened prothoracic spots noted.

Dyseriocrania subpurpurella

Eriocrania sangii

Eriocrania semipurpurella

Whilst mooching about, I also found a large gall on oak ....

This is from the sexual generation Oak Apple Gall Wasp (Biorhiza pallida).

I also found a couple of tortrix larva in leaf rolls that I've not made any attempt to identify as yet ....

Back to the lure, nothing. But I did notice a load of Navelwort that I don't remember noticing in VC55 before (though I probably ignore it as I see it so much in Devon), with a much more interesting looking bunch of plants around that I didn't recognise at all. I grabbed a few snaps, figuring it would be easy to work out subsequently, but couldn't come up with anything other than Wild Candytuft - which didn't look right and would be unlikely anyway. I enlisted some help, and got work back from Geoffrey Hall (Botanical CMR) via Graham Calow that it is actually Shepherd's Cress at its only known site in VC55. Appears I stumbled on an even more unlikely plant!

Navelwort

Shepherd's Cress (Teesdalea nudicaulis)

Back to the lure again, and nothing in the trap but some movement caught my eye and I noticed what appears to be a small pale tortrix perched on a leaf. A deft bit of potting and it was secured. I'm wasn't convinced it was attracted to lure, and after scrutiny I'm even more convinced as I think it is actually a worn female ....

I'm pencilling in this as a female Pammene argyrana, and hindwings seem to agree but I'll get it chopped at some point.

Not quite what I was hoping for, but a casual jaunt around a slate mound turned into something productive anyway.