09 June 2011

Horse-chestnut Leaf Miner request

Laura Gosset wrote:
LEAF-MINER HUNT on Saturday the 25th June 2011
Good morning,
My name is Laura, I am an MSc student from the University of Glamorgan in South Wales and am conducting my research project on the invasive Horse-Chestnut Leaf-Miner (Camararia ohridella). The caterpillars of this moth live inside the leaves of the Horse-Chestnut tree.
I need help in collecting data about the distribution of the Moth in the UK and wondered if you might be able to pass this message onto your local moth groups to see if they are interested in getting involved in leaf-miner hunting.
Everyone would need to find their nearest Horse-Chestnut tree on the 25th of June and have a look at the middle 'finger' (leaflet) of 10 different leaves from a single tree.
I need to know how many 'mines' there are in each of these leaflets (these are small brown circles or lines on the leaf, easiest to see when the leaf is held up to the light) and the location of the tree (post code, town etc.), even if there are no mines.
This information will then be put into a map to show the geographic distribution, this will help with my research project into the distribution of the moth and it's parasites.
More information can be found on My Blog http://leafminer.wordpress.com if anyone is interested. I will keep it updated as we approach the big day, with information on how to send your results.
Thank you so much for your help,
Laura


[Ed: Check out http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=2901 for pictures of mines]

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