All The Leaves Aren't Brown

It suddenly occurred to me, looking up at the horse chestnut in the garden, that its leaves are perfectly green. In recent years, by now, they have been heavily mottled with brown caused by the mines of the the larvae of the horse chestnut leaf miner moth Cameraria ohridella.  I blipped about it on 23rd June 2017. Most of the trees in southern England and Wales have been affected.

I looked for the tiny moths in areas where I have found them before in the spring this year but couldn't find any but thought they must be about and it was just that I hadn't spotted any. I would be very interested to hear from blippers if they too have noticed the absence of brown leaves. I'd love to know what has happened to the moths. Of course it's wonderful that they've disappeared as the trees look so sad with their leaves brown in midsummer. Thankfully, even though the damage is unsightly, it doesn't affect the health of the tree.

I've added a smart hoverfly to extras. It wasn't easy to capture as it kept ducking down towards the ground. I'd forgotten that the larvae of these Day-Glo syrphs are associated with ant-attended root aphids within ant nests.

The mouse-pad on my laptop wouldn't work when I tried to upload this. Seems to have cured itself overnight. :)