Fri May 18 2012

green window leaf miner Parasol Mushrooms Wood Blewit

 

AUTUMN LEAF FALL AND LEAF MINING INSECTS

With the autumn season well and truly moving on now, the leaves have started to fall from the trees around the site. If you look closely at some of these leaves, you may notice that some still have patches of green on them, even though the rest of the leaf is brown. The reason for this is most likely the result of a group of insects called ‘leaf-miners’.  The largest group of these insects are moths – very small moths in fact, normally only with a wingspan of a few millimetres. Their caterpillars live inside the leaf, between the upper and lower surfaces and feed on the green plant cells within. Some release chemicals from their bodies which stop the leaf turning brown, hence why you get the green patches on the fallen leaves – this allows them to feed for much longer at this time of year. They often form a winding track across the leaf, some producing quite pretty patterns as they grow. These patterns, along with the type of tree they have been feeding on, can tell you which species the moth is, even after the caterpillar has left the leaf to turn into a chrysalis. These miners do not harm the native tree species, but there are a few that have arrived in Britain recently that have been in the press for the damage they have caused to non-native trees in parks and gardens. The most infamous is the Horse chestnut leaf-miner Cameraria ohridella, first found in Britain in London in 2002, probably the result of importation of contaminated trees. It spread rapidly, with the first Suffolk record in 2004, actually from the Horse chestnut trees in the car park at the golf club (found by myself). This moth’s caterpillars form large yellow blotches on the leaves, often so many on a leaf there is no green colour left! Trees affected seem to lose their leaves earlier than normal. This could possibly weaken the tree and leave it open to attack from other pests and diseases. These attacks do not kill the trees however. At present, the moth continues to spread and increase but it is hoped that native parasites and diseases will adapt and start affecting numbers soon.

 

After the superb showing of fungi during October, numbers have now reduced but there are still a few late season species to watch out for. Parasol mushrooms will continue to grow – these can be very large, with almost dinner-plate size whitish speckled caps and robust stalks. A good place to see them seems to be the big cross bunker at the 18th - they appear here every year on the green-side bank. In more wooded areas, look for Wood Blewits, especially on piles of leaves. They are very distinctive, being mainly violet in colour with a brown-topped cap and a pleasant fruity smell.

 

A few other recent observations on site to watch out for:

Buzzard – one bird seems to be regularly seen now, especially around the 5th hole.

 

Redwings– flocks of these small starling-sized thrushes are being noted nearly every day. These are Scandinavian migrants coming in to spend the winter here. Their thin ‘tsseep’ flight call is very distinctive and is often heard from flying birds. They may be seen feeding on berry bushes around the course. In appearance they look a bit like song thrushes but have a large pale streak above the eye and a large red patch on the flanks and under the wings, hence the name.

 

Neil Sherman

 
 

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