Since September 2003 the author has been making a minimum intervention study of a square metre of land and the immediate surrounding area in his garden in the East Sussex Weald at Sedlescombe near Hastings, UK. By April 2016 over 1000 species of plants and animals (none of which has been deliberately introduced) had been recorded and the area featured on many TV and radio shows including Spring Watch, and The One Show.
Tuesday, June 09, 2020
Holly and knapweed eaters
Most of the leading shoots on the cordon holly in The Square Metre have been bundled up and the leaves partly eaten by what I think is probably the holly tortrix, Rhopobota naevana.
I also spotted some small leaf mines towards the tips of knapweed leaves and, using the online guides, it looks as though these are made by the larvae of the beetle Sphaeroderma testacea.
