This is the distinctive leaf roll gall of the bug Trioza centranthi. Noticed this on red valerian growing from the margins of a car park in Magor a couple of weeks ago. Returned last Saturday to take some photos. This bug has just a handful of records in Britain but is probably under-recorded.Checking various recording websites its seems this is the first record for the vice county of Monmouthshire.
I have been exploring the distribution of T. centranthi over the past couple of months and now have a current distribution map which appears to show a dramatic range expansion in the past year or two (see below if embedding works). Robert Homan has recently (this year) found the galls in the station car park at Chepstow.
ReplyDeleteTrioza centhranthi Provisional Distribution (Jan 2019) (Flickr)