Another miner for the year list

While ever there are leaves on the trees it is worth the effort having a quick look for leaf mining activity. The are still plenty of leaves on the Goat Willow around here and as a result a good scattering of tenanted mines of Ectoedemia intimella on pretty much all of the trees I search.

More from the case files...

There are still larval cases of some of the Coleophorids to be found, here are a few of my relatively recent finds:
Coleophora albitarsella on Ground Ivy Coleophora solitariella on Stitchwort Coleophora limosipennella on Elm

A new miner: Stigmella catharticella

Despite searching for the foodplant of this species for a while now I had no luck until this weekend, when I found one example of Buckthorn in a hedge very close to home (although not in an easily accessible area). Very pleased to add this to the list in what has been a very productive year for leaf miners. Dave

'Tis the season...for miners

Now is as good a time as any to get out there searching for leaf miner activity as they are pretty much everywhere in abundance right now.

He's a few more finds from this weekend:

Phyllonorycter stettinensis on Alder


Leucoptera laburnella on Laburnum


Bucculatrix ulmella on Oak
Stigmella lemniscella on Elm

Rearing success with a tiny one

Been finding plenty of Phyllocnistis species mines this Autumn, including P. unipunctella on Poplar. Several of which emerged recently and one even sat still long enough to pose for the camera too.

Persistence rewarded

Well after hours and hours of searching for this case-bearer over several years in the end it was the most casual of glances this morning that finally yielded a new one for me in the shape of Coleophora artemisicolella. Well chuffed to say the least... Dave

Leaf miner glut continues

Another day with fantastic returns from a miner foray: over 45 species this time and many different ones to the 40 plus day earlier in the week due to different habitat.

 Highlights include:

 Phyllocnistis xenia on Populus

Phyllocnistis saligna on Salix
Stigmella viscerella on Elm

If you go down to the woods today...

A short trip to the woods today yielded over 40 species of leaf miner, with many families represented.

There were thousands and thousands of Phyllonorycter coryli on Hazel, with P. esperella on Hornbeam not too far behind.

Many other species were well into the high hundreds: Caloptilia syringella, Stigmella tityrella, S. hemargyrella, Phyllonorycter messaniella and P. maestingella included.

Some of the highlights included:

Elachista gangabella


Stigmella splendidissimella

Stigmella aceris
Euspilapteryx (Eucalybites) auroguttella
Stigmella samiatella
Phyllonorycter platanoidella
Parornix fagivora
Phyllonorycter mespilella

Lucky sweep

Had this little beauty when sweeping Field Maple close to home. Even more pleased that it sat still for its photo shoot, as I have always had major trouble with this family in the past...

 

The dirty and the beautiful

Two recent highlights that could hardly be more contrasting, firstly the beauty that is Chrysoesthia drurella. I have found many mines of this species but this was my first adult in the UK.

And secondly the somewhat drab Pediasia contaminella, in fact named for its rather dull or dirty
appearance.

 

A mind blowing quartet

Still having to pinch myself that this set of moths were all nestled in my humble back garden moth trap...halcyon days indeed.
Loxostege sticticalis


Pempelia obductella


Sciota adelphella


Oncocera semirubella

Going dotty

Been seeing all sorts of spots before my eyes of late both attracted to the garden trap and with rearing success: here are a few of the recent monochrome marvels...

Ethmia dodecea

Yponomeuta cagnagella bred ex larva on Spindle

Yponomeuta evonymella

Yponomeuta plumbella bred ex larva on Spindle

Feelin' hot hot hot...

Well yes the weather is fantastic but the mothing is also red hot or is it a purple patch, anyway here's a few of the highlights from recent days, including several new additions to the garden list, pushing it to the cusp of 700 species...

Evergestis limbata


Schoenobius gigantella


Lozotaeniodes formosanus


Ethmia dodecea


Yarrow Plume

Self-assembly

Found the larval case of this moth - Psyche casta - a few weeks ago, potted it up hoping to rear through.

I was more than pleased when this beautiful female, who really is nothing more than a glorified egg-sac, duly emerged a couple of days ago, as my mind immediately turned to the possibility of assembling a male to her.





This also turned out to be a success, with just a single male coming to the female who had been placed in a net bag in the garden (the same net bag that is used for various synthetic Clearwing lures)


Psyche casta - male. Assembled to newly emerged female (above)

Mines by the dozen

Literally dozens of mines around now from a wide range of species and food plants...

Callisto denticulella on Apple


Parornix anglicella on Hawthorn

Phyllonorycter coryli on Hazel

Parornix devoniella on Hazel

Leucospilapteryx omissella on Mugwort

The Holy Grail: found....

The adults of this species have been turning up at the back garden trap every July for several years now, giving a strong indication of a breeding population close by. However, I have been searching for years to find the incontrovertible evidence of breeding - the larvae.

So it was that a few weeks ago, I stumbled across this solitary Yponomeuta larva, that looked that little bit different, it being alone also raised my expectations as this species gets all Greta Garbo as it matures, unlike many of its congeners.



 A few days later, pupation and again, cross-referencing images on the Internet (the few I could find anyway) raised my expectations even further, until on Sunday 7th July, the adult emerged confirming my hopes and suspicions and ticking off one of my Holy Grails.

New UK foodplant for miner

As tentatively reported back in May: http://kentmicromoths.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/early-stages-phyllonorycter.html

I found what appeared to be the mine of Phyllonorycter oxyacanthae on Pyracantha, 
which to that point was not recorded from this foodplant in the UK.

The adult has now emerged, confirming the ID, and as such a new foodplant.

Miner season shifts up a gear

The number of miners is now steadily on the rise. Here are some of the latest finds...
 Antispila metalella mine in Dogwood
 
Lyonetia clerkella mine on Hawthorn
 
Stigmella hybnerella mine on Hawthorn
  Phyllonorycter oxyacanthae mine on Hawthorn Phyllonorycter oxyacanthae mine on Hawthorn - underside