Friday 28 April 2017

Merthyr mawr yesterday.

                       Aethes tesserana

      I found several mines on Birch and would like confirmation on these please.
                      Eriocrania salopiella?

                     Eriocrania cicatricella? Two larva can be seen.

                      Eriocrania semipurpurella?

                       No idea on this, no larvae visible in this one.
                       Thanks in advance.

5 comments:

  1. I don't think you can get the last one to species if there's no larva present. The one above it looks like a sawfly with those dark spots (see http://leafmines.co.uk/html/Plants/betula.htm for possiblities) though the coiled frass looks like Eriocrania - odd.

    The first two look good to me - I can see 5 larvae in the cicatricella mine. I don't think there are any county records since 1928! Nice one.

    Hopefully Dave can confirm.

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  2. Thanks George. I did think the semipurpurella larva looked wrong for it. The cicatricella was on the far edge of the slack you tried for Portland moth last year.

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  3. The Sawfly could be Fenusa pumilia, but the frass is indeed odd for it.

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  4. Comments on facebook suggest the first mine is semipurpurella.

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  5. I have never been in time to look at Birch Eriocranids myself, but I agree with your cicatrella and the Fenusa pumillia. I am not sure about the first one but happy to go with semipurpurella.

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