First pictures of the Horse Chestnut miner (Cameraria ohridella).

This was found for the first time last year (2002) in a South London suburb (Wimbledon). It was first found in 1985 near Lake Ohrid in Macedonia. It has since spread extremely rapidly through Europe.

It even has it's own web site: http://www.cameraria.de/cameraria_e.html 

The mines are very distinctive and one side of the leaf is 'blistered' as shown here. Take care that you do not confuse this mine with the fungus which affects Horse Chestnut - the areas affected are red also, but with a yellow edge. During 2003 the miner has spread through South London and the mines shown were collected on 15th October 2003 by Colin Plant and Rachel Terry in Greenford,  Middlesex. It has also been discovered in North Oxford in 2003. It has also spread to Tonbridge, Kent, where mines were reported by Keith Palmer on 18th September. It is expected to spread rapidly in this country - certainly a miner to look out for. Image:© Colin Plant

Sept 2003: New Leaf mine book published. Csóka, G (2003) Leaf Mines and Leaf Miners. This is a photographic guide to a selection of leaf miners of all orders, along with accompanying brief text. It is in Hungarian, but has an English translation

Sept 2003: Newsletter of the National Leaf Mining Lepidoptera Scheme is published. It includes details of the two new miners to Britain, mentioned below.

The top 20 miners from this scheme in terms of the most 10km square records are:

Detail of this scheme are available from Martin Ellis

Ectoedemia heringella: A British first - found in the gardens of Kensington Palace!

Martin Honey discovered this leaf miner in the grounds of the Natural History Museum last year (2002) feeding on Quercus ilex (Evergreen Oak). John Langmaid has collected these mines and Ian Thirlwell has photographed them: It is found in several localities in Greater London. Martin Honey would be very interested to see if it occurs elsewhere in the UK and to track its spread in Britain. Its Bradley number will be 36a. More pictures are available on this web site.

Image:© Ian Thirlwell

British Plant Gall Society 

They arrange an active programme of meetings, which includes leaf miners. Click on this link to view their 2003 meetings programme. They are also in the links section of this site.