 |
Tuesday, 28 July 2015
Another unusual leafminer at Coryton
Coryton roundabout has a history of producing interesting records, such as the scarce, supposedly ancient woodland leafminer Phyllonorycter muelleriella found there a few years ago. I stopped off for a few minutes on the way back into Cardiff this evening, and walked the path which runs between The Village hotel and the south side of the roundabout. A mine on Dogwood caught my eye, and on closer inspection at home proved to be Antispila metallella, with the distinctive cut out made by the larva to make a case for pupating on the ground.
The final photo shows two 'trial slits' at the start of the mine, made by the female ovipositor, which separates the mine of Antispila metallella from the similar mine of A. treitschkiella. There is only one previous VC41 record of metallella, made by Barry and Sandra on Gower back in 1995.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Congratulations, George. One to look out for.
ReplyDeleteI've spent ages staring at Dogwood looking for these mines and never found them - looks like I'll just have to spend longer looking!
ReplyDeleteThanks. I've also looked at Dogwood in the past without success. This one was in a shady spot, not sure if that is significant.
ReplyDeleteWould be nice to see the moth!
I've only found them a couple of times: at Dingestow and Penyclawdd and both A metalella. Two records were of mines on the same bushes on the lane on the north side of Graig Wood, Penyclawdd (N side so relatively shady) and the other was an adult netted in flight near Dingestow Court in a deep, rather shady lane.
ReplyDeleteSo, maybe shady lanes are the best place to look...
ReplyDeleteThe Manselfield site is a shady site too
ReplyDeleteThe Manselfield site is a shady site too
ReplyDelete