I was on a field trip with the Bucks Fungus Group to Wotton today. This is a private site with marvellous parkland and a large lake. There are many non-native trees, including lots of White Poplar Populus alba.
I had a good look at these and found several mines of the Kent Maze-miner Phyllocnistis xenia which is a Nationally Scarce B species with only a handful of records in each Upper Thames VC.
The mine occurs on both White Poplar Populus alba and Grey Poplar P. alba x tremula. (If you are not sure how to ID tree species, there are several apps which are very helpful, e.g. Seek, Obsidentify etc.)
I've found the mine a few times, and I've always found them on low growth, often on saplings, as I did today. I'm not sure if that's because the mines only occur low down, or because those are the only ones I've been able to look at!
The mine is distinctive, a wide silvery corridor, snaking and covering a large part of the leaf, and with a thin black line of frass.
Happy hunting!
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