It`s not what you think!

 En route home from my Gelli Aur visit on Saturday (10/9), I stopped off at Carreg Gwenlais quarry, Carmel Woods. Walking into the main quarry area along the circular footpath around that site, I noticed that many of the leaves of a particular hazel, which was overhanging a streamlet, were covered in lumps of mucus. This old bush is on the main path into the quarry, not an obscure minor side path, though I`ve not noticed this mucus before. What was it? I saw that there seemed to black `dots` within the mucus - larvae, and I laughed at myself when I thought of `escaped Amazonian tree-frogs` or something similarly daft. I took some photos, which are shown below.

Later, at home, online searching by asking the appropriate questions, led me to a creature whose relatives often visit our moth traps - though not necessarily this particular species. The mucus forms part of the life cycle of a caddis fly called Glyphostaelus pellucidus and it has been, not inappropriately, dubbed `tree snot`! (look too at part of my title to this posting - `It`s not what you think!`). It is really worth googling the scientific name of this caddis to learn of its fascinating life cycle. The species has actually already been recorded quite close to the quarry - at the `turlough` a little to the NW.

Above: one of the mucus `blobs` and, below: looking into the quarry with the particular hazel on the left-hand side.