Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Sallow leaf damage

How likely is this leaf damage (on a fallen sallow) to have been made by Purple Emperor, or could it be any of numerous species of Lepidoptera - the location is Epping Forest, Essex? We are still trying, in a lazy kind of way, to find our first larva. Thanks, Liz & Andrew

2 comments:

Matthew Oates said...

Sorry Liz, but definitely not. Leaves with that damage are fairly commonplace, though they need checking out. But PE eating is more consistent, without that degree of jaggedness, and larvae do not leave such a long mid rib isthmus. Also, the larval silk pad and mid rib silking persists for a long time, and is lacking here. Finally, those leaves look the wrong colour to me...

Come down here next early Sept and I'll teach you the trick - in a good egg lay season searching for early autumn larvae is a very good survey technique...

Liz Goodyear said...

Thanks Matthew we will take you up on this!