Phyllonorycter and Caloptilia on Field Maple

At the far end of the Access Trail woodland shaw, where we put the extra brick footings down the other year, there was a small Field Maple with a few folded leaf tip lobes that looked like Caloptilia mine follow-on folds.

This turned out to be Phyllonorycter acerifoliella, (Zeller, 1839), the Maple Midget, a bi-voltine leaf miner. The mines can be found in small numbers in May and, more frequently, in September and October. These mines are presumably partly the current generation of mines, and so some should really contain larvae or pupae that are about to over-winter.

The pupa should be blackish brown in a tight, thin-walled cocoon that is attached to the floor of the mine; all frass is accumulated in the opposite corner of the mine.

First seen from the upperside, then the underside:

and here is another example:

This is another, more recent mine, which I cannot identify, as it doesn't look at all like typical Phyllonorycter acerifoliella. It could possibly be Phyllonorycter joanissii from Norway Maple, which this mine closely resembles, but this is generally judged very unlikely. In the past Andy Banthorpe has identified this type of mine away from the edge as atypical Phyllonorycter acerifoliella.

Again, first from the upperside, then the underside:

a closer view:

Hopefully these Phyllonorycter acerifoliella folded leaf lobe mines will not be confused again with Caloptilia leaf lobe folds, as I first did!!

Now this looks more like a Caloptilia:

Viewed first from the upperside, then the underside:

On Field Maple, Acer campestre, in the UK this would seem to be most likely to be Caloptilia semifascia  (Haworth, 1828), the "Maple Slender". This is found on the Field Maple in the UK

The very early mine is a gallery leading soon to a small triangular or squarish blotch. Later the larvae move out to form up to three successive tubes or cones by folding the tips of leaves downwards, in which they live. On this plant there were usually only one or two folded leaf lobes per leaf. The larvae are said to be greenish with a lighter head.

The mines are supposed to occur in June - July and the ones shown here do generally look quite fairly old. Pupation is said to be in a flat, parchment-like, shining, yellowish white cocoon on either side of the leaf, but generally near the margin. I imagine that pupae are quite difficult to find in July(ish), and I haven't found any yet. The moth then flies until October, and after hibernating, again in May, before egg-laying.

However, another minor possibility on Field Maple is Caloptilia rufipennella (Hubner, 1796), which is found almost entirely on Sycamore and only rarely on Field Maple in the UK, although apparently on a wider range of Acers, including again Field Maple, on the continent. This species was only first identified on any Acer species in the UK in 1970, and is still a bit local in its distribution although spreading well. Because of its rarity on other hosts, at least according to current records, we can fairly discount it as a likely record in this case. It also has to be said that the information about host preference on different web-sites is quite contradictory in my view.

The initial feeding blotch mines are very difficult to find, and distinguish from other feeding marks, again in my limited experience, and I haven't identified one at all yet. 

Fox Covert

Back to Dene Park, and diverting off to Fox Covert and the field beside it.

At the top of the field I found a few small folds at the tip of the lobes of Sycamore leaves, which I thought might be indicative of a Caloptilia species. This could be the Small Red Slender, Caloptilia rufipennella, found in the UK since the 1970s. The moth over-winters, perhaps in an evergreen such as Yew and reappears about spring. The mines are formed in sycamore leaves around, first as a small mine tucked into a vein axil, and you then get usually 3 "leaf tip folds - cones?" of increasing size in which the larvae continue to feed.

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.