Ganoderma on Horse Chestnut by the Meanders Bridge, near Hope Farm

 A nice cross-section of the conk, hopefully the right way up:

The tree is not looking at all well, with badly cracking bark:

Alder leafmines

Phyllonorycter klemannella, (Fabricius, 1781), the Dark Alder Midget 

The first and possibly much the commonest mine I found today was Phyllonorycter klemanella (=kleemannella), the Dark Alder Midget. I was only looking on a few lower branches of an alder on the north side of the Bourne opposite Easterfield Bungalow.

These mines were both away from the midrib, and also close to the midrib. They showed no strong creases (so the mines were not Phyllonorycter rajella, larvae June and July), and it is the right time for the second generation of these larvae in the year, July- August. The mines were not long and thin enough to be confused with Phyllonorycter froelichiella, which is also un-creased, but with grey larvae, usually a bit later in the year, such as September-October. All these are underside mines on Common Alder, as opposed to Phyllonorycter stettinensis, which is strongly creased, characteristically yellow-green and on the topside of the leaf over a vein, larvae May and July-August but can be as late as November.

There were active green fresh mines but there were also other older mines, some emptied, which might have been from the first generation, May-June, or already-hatched mines from the second generation. Here is a supposedly typical fresh oval mine of Phyllonorycter klemanella (=kleemannella). 

Here is another mine, from the upper side of the leaf.

Phyllonorycter stettinensis (Nicelli, 1852), the Small Alder Midget

I did also find two, or a few more, examples of Phyllonorycter stettinensis, on the upper side of the leaf. This is yellow green, with one strong central crease, the timing is right for the second generation  but in this photograph it is NOT over a lateral vein, as described in Bladmineerders. A second mine was over a lateral vein, so that is OK!

This mine is apparently much more typical, over the vein,

Phyllonorycter froelichiella (Zeller, 1839), the Broad-barred Midget

I may have found one or two examples of this leaf-miner, but it is a bit early for this particular species. Also this particular mine does look as though there is the start of a single crease in the mine, which would be unexpected in froelichiella, so maybe this is a misidentification. With this crease it could be rajella.

I need to check back, but I don't seem to have ever seen froelichiella for sure - I will check through as much as I can.

.Phyllonorycter rajella (Linnaeus, 17589), the Common Alder Midget

Why haven't I found this species on the leaves of this tree? The larvae should be found in June/July and more in September/October, and I would have expected to find it by now.

Heterarthus vagans ( ), 

This is a possible, but not definite, identification,

Dasineura ulmaria, a Leaf Gall midge on Meadowsweet

 

Possible ID. Found somewhere along the River Bourne walk on a Meadowsweet plant.

Butterflies at Leybourne

Nice walk through the recently created meadows today with the trainee group of butterfly surveyors, and saw one or two Small Coppers, Common Blues, Small Whites, Large Whites, four Painted Ladies and lots of Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns. A possible Red Admiral was seen.

A couple of Speckled Woods over on the path around the Ocean, nice to see.

Iteomyia capreae, a willow leaf gall initiated by a gall midge larva.

 

Found somewhere along by the River Bourne. 

BBQ near Harrietsham

Red Admiral on the lawn, and a nice collection of perhaps rather crowded trees. One of the purple plums had a couple of Ganoderma applanatum brackets on a dead stump. I rubbed the edge of the spore surface and it turned brown immediately - the spores?

Sweet Cicely I thought at the bottom of the garden, in the hedge by the side road.

Ganoderma australe/adspersum possibly

 

This perennial bracket is a common feature of the basal area of many broad-leaved trees in the UK. Perhaps G. adspersum is the better name for the examples found in the UK? 

I THINK this is a fairly typical shot. This species is separated morphologically from the closely related Ganoderma applanatum by its thicker cuticle or upper surface, consistently over 1 mm thick. Ganoderma australe/adspersum is by far the commoner, and thought to be most aggressively parasitic. Ganoderma applanatum is more generally confined in its saprophytic role to already dead and moribund trees. 

Where targets are at risk and the conks are noticed, then the hollowness and the stability of the tree where the fruiting bodies have been seen should be checked. This particular photograph was actually taken at the start of the month two years ago, near Harrietsham while we were attending a BBQ. I cannot remember whether we checked the surroundings very carefully, but my memory tells me that this might have been close to a relatively quiet country road.

As a result of its thinner cuticle, the upper surface of G. applanatum is often softer and depressable with a thumb or finger, whilst G. australe/adspersum is much harder and has no give. "This should be tried on fruitbodies appearing to be at least two years old and upward but not applied to old fruitbodies with crumbling cuticles." What do we make of this?

This age threshold should also be applied when observing and comparing the "context" of the two species, i.e. the thickness of flesh layer between each season’s tube growth. Here the thickness difference is the other way round, it is thinner to non-existent in G. australe/adspersum!  http://www.londonfungusgroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Ganoderma.pdf

In Ganoderma applanatum, the margin of the conk may also often be thinner/sharper, and there may be its characteristic fly galls on the lower surface, which are never found on G. australe/adspersum. If you were to find a Ganoderma on a conifer, there are no to very few records of G. australe/adspersum on conifers in the UK, whereas there are some of Ganoderma applanatum, but there are other species to consider!