Back to the Access trail

On the Field Maple (Acer campestre) leaves on the sunny side of the Access trail I found both of the common Acer campestre leaf mite pouch galls, the very common Aceria myriadeum and the less abundant and somewhat larger Aceria macrochela (warning: the taxonomy of all Acer gall mites is a bit dubious).

Both, however named, can be seen in this general picture of the upperside of a leaf at about breast height.

At first I was worried because I didn't think that these galls were at all fuzzy/furry, as shown in Redfern and Shirley, but a closer look at one of the more terminal galls in the picture above reassured me:

Here to compare, is a shot of a leaf absolutely covered with puches caused by Aceria myriadeum. It's amazing how the wrinkles in the leaf can bring the surfaces in and out of focus.

While these mites attack the plant foliage, there are a number of butterflies about, including good numbers of ageing Commas, Polygonia c-album. Even after a fair amount of wear, these butterflies show wonderfully coloured hairs and scales:

There were also some of the new emergence of Gatekeepers, Pyronia tithonus, basking in full view, even if screened from my camera by nearer foliage:

And there was one Large White, Pieris brassicae (L.), and several Small Whites, Pieris rapae (L.), some of the detail  of which are shown here, the eyes most in focus in the first photograph, and then the furry hairs of the body more clearly seen in the second photograph.

There were quite large numbers of the Marmalade Hoverfly, Episyrphus balteatus, on the bramble banks.

Now, how about the bumble bees? These are quite tricky I find. I think the first is a male of the White Tailed Bumblebee, Bombus lucorum, and the second is a male of the Buff Tailed Bumblebee, Bombus terrestris.

Moving on to the plants I took particular notice of the very common Spear Thistle, Cirsium vulgare (Savi) Ten., showing the sharp somewhat yellow-tipped bracts below the inflorescence:

Here you can see the cottony stem, and the spiny-hairy upper surfaces of the non-shiny leaves, which have long terminal lobes:

Looking a bit closer at the upper surface of the leaves you can easily see the spiny hairs:

and here is a close-up of the cottony stem - remarkable! A noxious weed in the UK, it is an introduced and injurious weed in 9 states of the USA and also an alien in Australia - lucky them!

In amongst these bramble, thistle and nettle banks, there must be rabbits. Here is some of the damage they are doing to the Wheat crop, (Triticum sp.)  in the field owned by Hadlow Place Farm.