Hazel Leaf-roller

This morning Ben had his braces off and his teeth look perfect - all that careful brushing has really paid dividends. He says it feels very strange to be without them - but in a good way! We popped into town after his appointment, and had time for a cup of coffee together, before I needed to return home to get ready for the next part of the day. 

The afternoon was spent walking round Orton Pit with the new warden, helping to select ponds for restoration this autumn. It's a large site with a lot of uneven ground, and I always find it quite tiring, but once that was over, it was straight out again to Swaddywell Pit, where Pete and Chris did some invertebrate survey while I walked slowly round recording plants.

We arrived back a bit after 7 and then it was time to prepare the evening meal, as Alex was starving after a day working with his friend  to remove a very large three-stemmed willow. I finally got around to photographing this hazel leaf-roller Apoderus coryli, that Chris had brought home from Herefordshire, late in the evening. They get their name from the reproductive behaviour. 

The female cuts slits into leaves, lays her yellowish eggs on them and rolls up these leaves into cigar-shaped cylinders or ‘cradles’ for the developing larvae, that will feed and pupate in these the leaf wraps. The time of oviposition may take several weeks. Several cylinders per day are produced and the adult beetles emerge in the summer. There are two generations per year and the larvae of the second generation overwinter in the cylinders, which can often be observed hanging on hazel bushes..