Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles

This sort of weather is not very conducive to field work.

However, some things are afoot. Through the Skye Naturalists’ Network on Facebook and with the help of Skye Gardening Society, I have had a number of people locating and inspecting Quercus ilex (Evergreen/Holm/Holly Oak) and Pyracantha coccinea in the hope of finding leaf mines caused by moth larvae.

The firethorn leaf miner Phyllonorycter leucographella invaded the UK 30 or so years ago and has spread north rapidly. It is found up to the Highlands but there are still vice-counties where it hasn’t reached or hasn’t been noticed, such as ours.  It makes rather silvery blister mines on the upperside of Pyracantha (Firethorn) leaves and no other species is known to use this foodplant.

The European oak leaf-miner or Zeller’s midget Phyllonorycter messaniella makes blister mines on oak leaves (and also on beech).  Unfortunately, on our native oaks, there are a number of other Phyllonorycter species that can be confusing, but P. messaniella is a specialist species on the evergreen oak, Quercus ilex.  On Q. ilex in Scotland, this is the only Phyllonorycter mine to be found. 

It turns out that both host species are pretty rare on Skye/Raasay and so far no mines have been found.

Gall on gall:

This is Salix cinerea subsp. oleifolia (Rusty Sallow/Willow). I think the rosette, which is a common gall locally, is caused by a dipteran of the Rabdophaga strobilina/rosaria agg. However, there is another gall on the leaf midrib, upper surface, which is probably caused by a sawfly – Euura pedunculi or similar. The divisions shown are millimetres.

I have sent away a couple of stoneflies and Seth is kindly looking at a scuttle fly for me using a new key to the genus Triphleba provided by Henry Disney at Cambridge who is “King of Scuttle Flies”. Henry says this is the right genus and sent the key. Even then, quite a few of the outcomes are “possibly the unknown (fe)male of…..” so Good Luck Seth.

I will write a separate entry about spiders.

On the plant side, I have found a large colony of Tussilago farfara (Colt’s-foot) on disturbed ground not very far from home. There really isn’t very much of this on Raasay:

The resin glands on Abies alba (European Silver-fir) are apparent at the moment and contain a rich red resin.

I drove less than three miles to Fearns and walked to Hallaig a few days ago. It felt strange that the season had got so far on without me. I collected seven Hieracium (Hawkweed) specimens for expert determination, though I am not sure that I achieved much variety, nor anything scarce. Time will tell.

It was a cracking day for inverts, especially moths. Speckled Yellow had only been recorded on Raasay once before, in 1969. Had I realised that at the time I would have spent time getting a decent picture that wasn’t bleached like this one:

Speckled Yellow

I also saw two Satyr Pugs. These are not common locally and I had not recorded one before.

Satyr Pug

This little chap is Pammene rhediella (sometimes called Fruitlet Mining Tortrix) and has few records locally according to NBN.

Pammene rhediella

Curiously, the northern one on Rona in NG65 is by Stephen Moran in 2015 – I was there! And the one in the north of the island was found by Neil Roberts and myself on a kayaking trip last year.

Otherwise, there were beetles (Thanks, Ralph)

Cantharis cryptica

Staphylinus erythropterus

Phyllobius sp. A weevil that will probably be determined very soon

flies,

Rhagio notatus Large Fleck-winged Snipefly

Galls

Nettle Rust Puccinia urticae

Eriophyes pyri on Rowan

Acalitus rudis on Downy Birch. But “we cannot be certain about mite galls on Betula.”

butterflies (Common Blue, Red Admiral and many Small Heath) and various other things like this planthopper (Thanks to Stephen M).

Anoscopus albifrons

All in all, an excellent day.