Sunday, 19 September 2021

Stigmella aurella?

 Can these be ID'd as Stigmella aurella? All are on bramble and unfiortunately all seem to be vacated.










Mark Griffiths, Garsington, Oxford

3 comments:

  1. Hi Mark,

    Probably. These mines are quite old and the appearance of the frass isn't all that clear, but the likelihood is that they're all aurella if the leaves are bramble. I know it isn't always easy to time things correctly, especially as there may only be a week or two between the egg hatching and pupation for a lot of these miners, but fresh mines with a larva still present are much more helpful when it comes to trying to assign an ID!

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  2. 2d attempt, I keep getting errors from google when I post reples..thanks Dave, I'll start earlier next year.

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  3. Actually, for aurella, later might be better! It seems to breed continuously all year round and I have most success finding active mines in December and January when there are no other confusion species around.

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