Several different shaped mines on alder.
Empty larval cocoons on the underside of alder.
On silver birch.
On hazel.
These two photos appear to show leaf mines on japanese knotweed which surprises me as I had thought that as a non-native species none of our native species ate it?
A pair of common darters ovipositing. Unfortunately for them they were laying their eggs in a puddle on the gravel path around the ponds which has already almost completely dried up. Photo taken on 11th October.
A green-veined white seen on 12th October. The first one that I have seen since 9th August.
Hi Maggie,
ReplyDeleteAlder: looks like a fly mine. The Stigmella species on alder make a narrower mine.
Cocoons: they are made by the larvae of a parasitic wasp, which had probably emerged from an unfortunate caterpillar.
Birch: a very old mine, but it looks like Lyonetia clerkella.
Hazel: also old, not sure if this is Stigmella microtheriella or floslactella.
Knotweed: I think this is just leaf damage rather than mines.
George
Thanks for the info. I'm very new at looking for leaf mines so don't know which are made by flies rather than moths. I'm not surprised that the knotweed is leaf damage rather than mine as it is non-native.
DeleteMaggie
Some non-natives do get mines, particularly if they have closely related native plants, e.g. some of the Honeysuckle miners also use Snowberry and Leycesteria (Himalayan Honeysuckle). But I guess Japanese Knotweed doesn't have any very close native relatives.
ReplyDeleteIt can be tricky to separate fly, sawfly and moth mines, but keep posting the pics!
Thanks,
DeleteMaggie