Tischeria dodonaea Re-found in Delamere Forest

[stevehind]

Tischeria dodonaea Re-found in Delamere Forest:

Tischeria dodonaea has always held something of a mythical quality for me, as there has only ever been a single sighting in Cheshire and that was way back in 1918, when one, presumably an adult, was found by William Mansbridge at Delamere.

So it was a pleasant surprise to find six tenanted leaf mines on a couple of oaks at two separate locations within the northern, Kingswood part of Delamere Forest on a visit with Huw John and Mel Bellingham yesterday. We finished the day with a total of 57 species of moth, mainly leaf-miners, as well as a few Coleophora cases, of which C.discordella appears to be new to the hectad - SJ57.

The only macro larva was that of a Scalloped Hook-tip (Falcaria lacertinaria). Adults, singles of each, were Anthophila fabriciana, Argyresthia semifusca, Agonopterix arenella, Vapourer (Orgyia antiqua) and Silver Y (Autographa gamma).

Steve

[SteveH]

Nice one Steve,

Have been finding T. ekebladella in recent days but will be look closer from now on!

Steve

[stevehind]

A return visit to Delamere yesterday, this time to the Fox Howl area in the SW, produced a couple more mines at two more locations, one of which was outside the forest, by the roadside near Spy Hill. It appears to be widespread but very local and scarce in the area and I hope to visit the area again soon to search more sites. I guess we’ve overlooked it in the past with it being so scarce, although I recently heard that it has been re-found in Gloucestershire after a centuries absence.

The map on http://www.leafmines.co.uk/html/Lepidop ... amapvc.htm indicates that this is the most northern site in the UK and the habitat would reflect this, as the trees are in sheltered sites with low branches, typically good leaf mine sites, all with abundant Ectoedemia albifasciella.

Steve

[stevehind]

Since my last post I've made further visits to different parts of Delamere Forest and have managed to find another 24 Tischeria dodonaea mines at twelve more sites. Outside the Forest, but still part of the Delamere complex, was another mine by the busy A49, just south of the Nunsmere lay-by and another at Newchurch Common.

I was leaf mining at Marthall on 12th November 2011 and was surprised to find three mines on an oak tree by a fish pond SJ792762. This was about 15 miles east of Delamere, so clearly the species has not been restricted to the Forest.

Steve

[SteveH]

Hi Steve,

I've been looking at Oaks on my local patch for the last few weeks now but to date have found nothing resembling T.dodonaea. However, on the plus side, I've been finding Ectoedemia subimaculella all over the place.

Steve