As a break from the moths themselves, I`ve been busy doing some leaf mining recently, mostly making records of various common species in the Llanelli area. An easy one to spot this year is the mines of Bedellia somnulentella on bindweed Calystegia (or `Ladi-wen`- `white lady`, as it is known locally); the mines have been particularly abundant this late summer/autumn period and make an useful way to get records of this micro-moth. I`ve also been - unsuccessfully, alas - targeting a few species including various specialist micros found on hornbeam and lime. There are quite a few fastigiate hornbeams (non-native in Carms) planted in central Llanelli, but their upright growth form makes searching difficult and only a couple of generalist leaf mining micros have been found - not the ones that I was after! Also, I`ve been looking for a particular leaf miner (and other micros) on lime trees for years, so a special visit was made to Gelli Aur on Saturday to look for it (Stigmella tiliae) as there is a magnificent mature avenue of lime trees at this locality. Black smut on the leaves hindered the search but viewing was possible against the light - but, again, no success!
Whatever, here are a couple of easy ones to look for, found on some uncommon Carms trees. At Gelli Aur churchyard a huge London plane had abundant Phyllonorycta plantani `blister mines`, easily found due to their size, whilst a couple of days earlier I was pleased to find another Llanelli site (and new 10km sq) for another large mine, this time on Norway maple - Phyllonorycter joannisi (looking like little fried eggs!). Both species occur on the under-surface of the leaves.
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