Stigmella myrtillella- further discoveries
Intrigued by Sam findings on Stigmella myrtelliella in an earlier post on the blog dated the 1st November.
I thought I would have a go at a few sites that I remembered from my butterfly days which had its food plant, Bilberry.
Sam mentioned in the post that it was difficult to find but I like a challenge and decided to have a go.
My first port of call was at Ninewells Wood not too far away from the first sighting ever made way back in 1973 at Cleddon Bog. Along the way I decided to make leaf mine observations on other plants and trees to make the visit worth while just in case I could not find it.
Looking over a more sheltered spot for around 15 minutes I struggled to find any evidence at all before I started to feel spots of rain. With a dark cloud looming and approaching quickly I thought I would jump back in the car and gather my thoughts over a cup of coffee.
The shower passed bringing some small hail with it, so it was just as well I had got in the car.
The biggest issues today I soon discovered were the lack of leaves on plants, frost shrivelled or water stained leaves that had turned brown deceiving the eye and mines of a possible fly that was getting in there, so a bit of needle in a haystack situation.
Next I then wondered up a track that I had never been before and my mind was diverted away from Bilberry to Birch and a few Oaks and Beech. They brought forward some interesting mines of Stigmella luteella, confusella and sakhalinella on Birch with Stigmella atricapitella on Oak, so least I had come away with something on my trip.
Reverting back to Bilberry and beginning to give up on its presence here I changed tack deciding to concentrate on more open ground. It was a good move for within 20 minutes I discovered a group of three leaves together within a few feet near to an isolated Oak. These were definitely Stigmella myrtellella I was sure, so a brilliant result. Further wonderings for another 30 minutes produced nothing until the very last opportunity where another single mine was found quite some distance from the initial find, this time at a more sheltered spot.
Broad Meend which is connected to Cleddon Bog was the next port of call on the 12th but this would have to wait until the next week-end before time was available for a search.
It was a cool day much like the week before with bright sunshine, minus the gusty winds.
The much calmer day allowed me to scour the heath without any weather interuptions.
Looking at plants today however seemed much more difficult here with less of the greenness in the leaf after another week of weathering. Leaves were browned once again making selection difficult to process from a distance and even when something positive turned up it was still difficult to determine unless close up photography was used. After some lengthy looking, I came up with nothing of interest. Again I scoured near to trees in protected areas but this proved unproductive after 30 minutes.
Once again I decided to move to more open ground as the week before and once again this proved to be the right call for I found two mines after some very intense searching over the course of some 35 minutes in sunshine which was lowering towards the horizon.
This I believe might the right way forward for this elusive miner by looking at more open heathland in the future and something I will be bearing in mind in future searches.
I conducted another search in a different area today but was unsuccessful. The season for these Bilberry mines is closed more or less I reckon. Finding mines over the previous weeks must have been at the very edge of availability for this season, so very timely indeed and very rewarding.
Excellent work Nick. I had a look in the North Cardiff woodlands earlier this month, but the bilberry had already shed most of its leaves so my lack of success wasn't too surprising. Perhaps I need to try some more open sites next year (this species hasn't been recorded in VC41, but must be out there somewhere...).
ReplyDeleteThank you George, it was hard going but rewarding in the end.
ReplyDeleteI based my searches on your comments on Sam's post earlier, but I found it in open spaces. That's not to say it could favour sheltered spots as well, just where I discovered it on these sites, so the jury could still be out.
Best of luck in VC41, I imagine there must be a suitable habitat.