I was nudged recently to go and sample my local Turkey Oak, a mature specimen in a nearby park. Psallus spp aren't the easiest bugs to identify, but knowing the food plant can help. There are at least four Psallus spp which feed on Turkey Oak, although one doesn't seem to have spread beyond London at present. We have three species in Leicestershire: Psallus anaemicus, Psallus helenae and Psallus pardalis. I was successful in finding two of these, P. anaemicus and P. helenae.
Even better, I was able to find some interesting wasps (all wasps are interesting, but some are more interesting than others)! Cecidostiba fungosa and Sycophila biguttata are both parasitoids of various Oak galls causers, so finding them in a Turkey Oak was good. Trissolcus cultratus, a Shieldbug parasitoid, is now starting to turn up in multiple samples. After months of slog, a picture of parasitoid frequency, although still sketchy due to lack of data.
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