Plants of Skye, Raasay & The Small Isles

A fly I caught yesterday turns out to be Delia radicum known variously as the cabbage fly, cabbage root fly, root fly or turnip fly. Thanks, Laurence. Whilst pleased to have the first record in VC104 on NBN, I am less than fully delighted given we have just planted out all our Brassicas.

Delia radicum

The Goat Willow (Salix caprea) out the front is developing galls that I suspect are caused by the gall wasp Euura pedunculi.

Euura pedunculi gall on Salix caprea

and not far away an alder (Alnus glutinosa) has the early stages of Alder Wrinkle gall caused by the fungus Taphrina tosquinetii. Compare the size of the infected leaf with normal leaves.

Taphrina tosquinetii on Alnus gluinosa

A spider in the polytunnel turns out to be a Toad Spider or Walnut Orb-Weaver (Nuctenea umbratica). Thanks, Katie.

Walnut Orb-Weaver

Tags: Arachnids, Galls, Insects

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