Eriocrania extravaganza

The appearance of many of the Eriocrania leaf mines has been somewhat delayed this year but I finally managed to catch up with several of these over the last couple of days, the first three all on Birch, the last one on Oak:

Eriocrania sangii




Eriocrania cicatricella



Eriocrania salopiella



Eriocrania subpurpurella

Bonsai banzai bonanza

Had an early evening trip to Bonsai Bank and Denge Woods in the Kent Downs yesterday.  A stunning display of Lady Orchids and Twayblades and of course of micro moths (inc. leaf miners).

Denge Woods and Bonsai Bank, sweep netting, 23 May 2012 (5:15 - 7:15 pm)

Pyrausta nigrata - 6


Mompha raschkiella - 1


Micropterix calthella - 45+


Epinotia subocellana




Aethes tesserana




Eucosma aspidiscana


Nematopogon swammerdamella
Eriocrania sangii - 3 mines

E. cicatricella - 3 larva in single mine
E. salopiella

Dave

On the up and up

Had the first warm night in a long time yesterday and whilst micros to the trap were still under-represented the dusking foray yesterday evening had me running around with my net and head torch like a madman.

Dusking, 22/5/12, East Kent

Cocksfoot Moth (Glyphipterix simpliciella) 5




Pseudoswammerdamia combinella



Monopis laevigella - 2



Plutella xylostella - 1
Parsnip Moth
Agonopterix alstromeriana
Elachista rufocinerea - 3
Aphelia paleana (larvae)
Endrosis sarcitrella

Still finding loads of Coleophora cases too:

C. peribenanderi - on creeping thistle
C. paripennella - on creeping thistle and knapweed
C. solitariella - 8
C. lineolea - 14 on one small clump of hedge woundwort, the feeding signs are now really obvious
C. serratella - on hazel

Dave

Fruitful dusking forays

Whilst micros to the garden trap are almost non-existent at the moment, dusking including early stage searching is proving increasingly successful.

Dusking foray (16/05/2012)

Elachista argentella - 2
E. rufocinerea - 3
Nematopogon swammerdamella


Parornix sp. - 2
Parsnip Moth
Endrosis sarcitrella
Adela reamurella - 2


Cases

Coleophora solitariella - 6



C. serratella - 7
C. hemerobiella - 2


C. lineolea

Early Stages: Metzneria aestivella

The larvae of this moth feed inside the seed head of Carline Thistle.  I was lucky enough to locate these at a coastal site in Kent at the weekend and will hopefully rear them through.








I noticed that all of the affected seed heads would show a small, darkened clump of seeds that betrayed the feeding larva below.  Gently teasing the seed head apart revealed the larva feeding on the seeds at the base of the seed head.

If you do go looking for these, wear gloves.

Dave

Rearing success: Lozotaenia forsterana

This smart, yet brute of a Tortrix emerged from its pupa over the weekend: Lozotaenia forsterana.

The larva, given away by its spinning of leaves together, was collected from Hawthorn three weeks ago and duly emerged on 12.v.12.

I am always fascinated by what's left behind too so have also included a picture of the exuvia.

Dave

Early Stages: more on Coleophora serratella

Following up on the previous post, now managed to find Coleophora serratella larvae in their new, spring cases:



The discarded first case can be seen towards the top of this image and the larva can be seen in the mine






I observed this one for some time while it was in the process of constructing its new case.

Regards

Dave