Another pest from the Far East - Chestnut leaf gall wasps.

Dryocosmus kuriphilus

It looks almost like a Christmas decoration, doesn't it.  But those two shining berry-like structures are a pest from China.  They are galls created by a minute wasp with the jaw cracking Latin name written below the picture.  The wasp is classified in a group known as cynips. Such wasps are about two to three millimetres long and pitch black in colour but with bright orange legs.

 Image of the wasp  taken from the Forestry Commission site, 

and originally courtesy of Gyorgy Csoka, 

Hungary Forest Research Institute, Bugwood.org

The tiny wasp does not reproduce via normal mating.  The females lay eggs in small batches amounting to about 100 eggs at the end of summer. This is without any mating i.e it is parthenogenesis. The eggs are placed just inside the developing winter buds.  The larvae develop slowly and induce the surrounding plant tissues to develop into protective galls. The following summer the adults emerge to infect new buds.

 Gleaning information from the internet one learns that its original home is China, from it spread by 1940 to Japan,  and then to Korea in 1974 and on to the United States. In 2002 it appeared for the first time in Europe. The species has been extensively recorded from Italy since 2005. In 2007 it reached the south of France.

At that time the infested trees were burned but the spread has not been stopped. It has reached England and again burning of trees was tried.  
The pest weakens the trees which must have a toll on both fruit and timber production.
The insect is clearly now widespread through France.

It looks as though it is here to stay.  Just as the Asian hornet is now established and also the Asian Box tree  caterpillar so this Oriental Chestnut Gall Wasp is here to stay.

Caterpillar eats orchid

The tongue orchid produces no nectar.   Yet in the tubular hollow formed by the petals one can  find from time to time insects of various kinds.  Tiny beetles can scurry around.  Nevertheless it was something of a surprise to find a caterpillar (May 3rd 2013)  The caterpillar was tiny but the space is small and it was curled up. Its head was moving up and down as though it was eating, and indeed that was the case!

T=he flower of this orchid has a bright shiny purple swelling  on the labellum. That is to say the petal which lies lowest

and forms the base of the flower tube.  I extracted the caterpillar by shaking onto a small saucer and dissected the flower.  In the illustration here I have pinned the labellum of the eaten flower next to another which was not eaten.  You can see how the caterpillar has chewed at the red swelling in the petal on the left, exposing the pale tissue beneath.

Pursuing this matter, I searched for the species name of the caterpillar.  To keep it alive so I could see it more easily  I placed it on another Serapias flower head held in some water in a glass beaker.  The caterpillar crawled up the flower and proceeded to eat at the edge of a petal in the fashion which is common to caterpillars, attacking the petal edge sideways on and champing through as though it were a leaf edge.
The next two pictures show the caterpillar at the top of the flower and beginning to feed.

It appears to be the caterpillar of the common quaker moth [Orthosia cerasi syn - O.stabilis]  The books give the food plants as oak, elm. birch, willow, hawthorns, hazel and perhaps others.  I think I can add Serapias lingua!
The most likely explanation for thecreature being on the orchid is that heavy rain and gusty winds which have shaken the  'darling buds of may'  have thrown the caterpillar from the young leaves of the downy oak (Quercus pubescens) which are above this little group of orchids and the little creature will happily eat whatever it can.
The Common Quaker Moth is not that spectacular.  Its  fore wings are brown but prettily patterned.

Weather 2012

Statistical data cumulative for 2012
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April and May were wet and since then it has been very dry and hot. In July and August the average maximum temperatures approached thirty degrees Celsius.
The drought naturally has led to a failure of many crops only kept going with some irrigation from rain water stored in our cistern from the earlier part of the year.
The walnut crop this year will be poor but oddly there is a large crop of figs.
We make fig jam each year which serves as a substitute for Marmalade.  This year I have made 25 pots which should last till the next fig season.
The problem with fig jam is that it does not set without encouragement.  The fault lies with the acidity of the fruit.
This recipe solves the problem

To make 6/7 jars of Fig Marmalade

1.6 kg of ripe figs, cut into small chunks

One Lemon - use the zest and juice and as much pulp as possible.

Three large slices of crystallised ginger cut finely.

One rounded teaspoon of cinnamon powder.

1.6 kg of sugar (with pectin added if possible)

FOUR tablespoons of red wine vinegar.

Bring the figs, lemon, ginger and cinnamon mixture to the boil.  Macerate with a hand-held blender.

Add the sugar and boil quickly for about 6 minutes.  Test for setting. 

Bimonthly weather report January-February 2012

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To view statistics click here

It has been  a disastrous season - at least if we only remember February.  January was reasonably mild but February was Arctic!  The average night temperature was nearly minus three, but there were ten consecutive nights below minus eight.  We suffered as did numerous friends and neighbours from burst pipes.  One gushed like a fountain and our guest flat had three centimetres of water throughout the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen.  The consequence of that inundation is not entirely resolved in March.
The amount of rainfall has been appallingly low. We had only 7 millimetres in February.   Last year we had 44 and the year before 38. 
The snowdrops were delayed.  The first one was seen on the 23rd January  but it and its buddies soon hit the frost and the real flowering appeared on the 28/29 February.
Nearly all winter vegetables in the garden were killed.  Brussels sprouts  pulled through.  The roses which  were planted last autumn have been seriously damaged and possibly some have died.  This is a terrible shame  because they were a special planting to commemorate my wife's birthday.
No celandines appeared before March and of course the early flowering plum tree is still shut up tight even as I write this on the 10th March.
No migrating cranes (birds) have been seen during these two months.

The Sorcerer's Heart -Clathrus ruber

My wife said "There is something odd in the hedge".  We were in the car returning from shopping and just turning the corner of the lane to enter our driveway.   It wasn't an old discarded ball but this astonishing fungus.  It is astonishing at any time.  But to see it on January 2nd (2012) is truly extraordinary.   It is only the third time I have seen it.   The last time was some years ago when I came upon a specimen growing just under the walls of the ruined chateau of Montsegur,  That place is remarkable enough; perched high on a small mountain, bleak and forbidding.  It was the last refuge of the the religious sect - the Cathars - massacred on this spot by the bigots of the Catholic Church.

Clathrus ruber is usually said to be a southern species desiring warmth.  On January 2nd it was 4 degrees in the morning. So that seems odd.  It is rare in England, having mostly been found very close to the south coast, though are a few records close to the east coast of Scotland.  Perhaps it needs warmth during the previous year? It certainly needs warmth to let its stink pervade the air.  For, so it is said, the spores are distributed by flies attracted to the stink.  This specimen attracted no flies and I had to get my nose to within 15 centimetres of it to detect its characteristic smell of rotting flesh.

The specimen was  no mean size, having a diameter of over fifteen centimetres.  The cage like structure had slightly collapsed towards the left.  It expands out of an 'egg' the soft papery casing of which can be seen at the base.  The mass of spores immersed in a brown slime is contained in the very centre and this is surrounded by a the girders of spongy red tissue.  This net of girders expands quite quickly creating a cage with the greeny-brown gooey stinking mass of spores (the gleba) sticking to the inside of the cage like structure.

It seems incredible that anyone would attempt to eat the thing, but I read from an American journal (1854) that a young man ate a portion and he suffered convulsions and lost his power of speech and became unconscious for 48 hours.   Another scientific account details that the fruit body is more than usually rich in the element manganese. That does seem odd.  Manganese is important in various enzymatic processes.  Perhaps it is important in whatever processes make the net like ball  expand rapidly?

Though it is rarely seen,  It is usually found in places with much leaf mould.

Flies which distribute the spores probably not only do this on their feet but also through their digestive tract.  I hypothesise, but it would seem not unlikely. You might suppose that the red colour (which is due to carotenes, and similar to the chemicals that make carrots red) might, in being similar to the colour of red meat, also be attractive to flies.  But do flies see colour?  If they do not, what then is the reason for this colour?  Other related species have this same colouration.

By the 6th January the gleba had almost totally been washed away by the rain and the girders, now pale pink, were left with a consistency of polystyrene foam, not at all slimy  and with little smell.

This article was first published in  http://blogs.angloinfo.com/an-english-naturalist-in-france/

Bimonthly Weather Report November December 2011

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December was by far the wettest month of the year, with 91 mms.
The comparative figures  for the other months from January onwards are.
23,38,45,04,19,37,22,38,33,58,29 and then 91. == 437 mms (17.2 inches)
In 2010 the rainfall was 648 mms (157 mms in June!) == 25.5 inches
In 2009 the rainfall was 671 mms = 26.4 inches

December was also quite mild 
The average temperatures for December (degrees C) over the past three years being.
2009   3.65 min/ 7.42 max
2010   1.61 min/ 6.52 max
2011   6.65 min/ 9.97max

Night frosts were 2009 - 8  2010 -14  2011 -2

Flowers open over Christmas included Mexican orange blossom in plenty, winter jasmine.  Rose bushes are growing their buds. 
The damned moles are having a whale of a time, as I write this on January 3rd 2012

You can eat any mushroom once!

Monsieur Gouny, our neighbour, looked at my small basket of mushrooms and he said ‘Ce sont les rosés?’ – they are the field mushrooms? – rosés des prés’ ?   ‘Oh no they are not’, I replied in French.  I illustrate some here as they were growing. They look like mushrooms but anyone who ate them would soon be writhing with a highly disturbed stomach. 

I have many textbooks on mushrooms and toadstools and that on the mushrooms lists over seventy species.  Of toadstools as a general group, there are thousands in Europe.

The mushrooms, collectively placed in the genus Agaricus all have spores which begin pink but which turn to a deep dark purple to black as they ripen.  The so-called gills which carry the spores change colour as the spores change colour.  Agaricus mushrooms all have a fleshy ring on the stem but the stem in otherwise bare and has no enveloping sac at its base (unlike the various deadly poisonous Amanitas).

The numerous true mushrooms all look very similar.  So, how do you tell them apart?

Well the ones I collected make the answer very difficult. 

These were Agaricus xanthodermus, the so-called ‘yellow-stainer’.  I fear that almost all  living things come in a variety of forms and the species of mushrooms are no exception.   If you read the books they will tell you that the ‘yellow-stainer’ has two marked characteristics.  Firstly, that the flesh in the base of the stem when cut, turns chrome-yellow, and that the broken flesh has a smell of ink.  It so happens that mine have no smell at all, and the colour change is extremely slight.

I illustrate a specimen which is shows a little yellow in the base – good specimens would be brilliantly yellow.

So it is necessary to look for other signs which are less obvious.  The shape of the cap helps.  This is not a smooth even dome.  When young it has a more rectangular section.  The sides tend to be almost vertical and the top is more flat. [The one marked Y shows this shape.] Then if you cut the specimen in half, the young gills are exceedingly pale pink.  Lastly look to where the mushrooms are growing.  Agaricus xanthodermus does not normally, if ever, grow far away from trees, whilst the ‘rosé des prés’  is found in the open pastures.   The yellow stainer is probably growing around the roots of the trees and in fact helping the tree to obtain minerals from the soil.  It is also itself in return obtaining carbohydrates from the trees.  So beware of mushrooms which look like mushrooms growing under trees! The field mushroom is obtaining nutrients from decomposing organic matter, possibly old horse dung.

Above all remember that the best mushrooms have a red tinge to their flesh and will colour any water in which they are placed a pale pinky-red.  The yellow stainer will never do that.  All mushrooms can be placed either into the group of red stainers or the group of yellow stainers – which bruise yellowish,