Conker fights facing big KO.Byline: Patrice John MIDLAND youngsters' hopes of a good conker-fighting season have been smashed - thanks to a "killer" moth. The Woodland Trust has predicted that an early crop of conkers could be damaged by the horse chestnut horse chestnut, common name for some members of the Hippocastanaceae, a family of trees and shrubs of the north temperate zones and of South America. The horse chestnut tree, Aesculus hippocastanum, leaf miner leaf miner Any of various insect larvae that live and feed within a leaf, including caterpillars, sawfly larvae, beetle and weevil grubs, and dipteran maggots. Most leaf-miner burrows or tunnels are either thin, winding, whitish trails or broad, whitish or brownish blotches. moth which is drying out leaves and turning them brown. And the conservation charity believes this could spell an end for good-quality conkers this autumn. A Woodland Trust spokesman said: "Wet summer horse chestnuts are coming into fruit two weeks earlier than the benchmark seasonal average, but this early crop faces a threat from a hitch-hiking moth. "A heavy infestation infestation /in·fes·ta·tion/ (-fes-ta´shun) parasitic attack or subsistence on the skin and/or its appendages, as by insects, mites, or ticks; sometimes used to denote parasitic invasion of the organs and tissues, as by helminths. may cause trees to struggle to produce enough nutrients to grow good-sized horse chestnuts and so school playgrounds across the UK may end up bereft of conker fights." The Woodland Trust has found that an early harvest of conkers which began to appear in August but normally emerges in late September, could be ruined by the insect. The horse chestnut leaf miner, also known as the cameraria ohridella, is now rife, even though it was first seen in the UK in London and places along the M40 corridor. The larvae Larvae, in Roman religion Larvae: see lemures. burrow within the leaf tissue, with heavy infestations resulting in leaf browning and drying and - over time - death. As a result the Woodland Trust has received a massive increase in queries regarding the colouring or browning of horse chestnut trees as nature-lovers begin to wonder if the conker will survive. Dr Kate Lewthwaite from the Woodland Trust said: "It looks set to be a bumper year for fruit and nuts due to the recent rainfall and warm temperatures. The combination of good temperatures for growth coupled with plenty of moisture helps to produce these abundant crops. It will be interesting to see if the cooler temperatures in the north of the country have any effect on the moth's advance." The horse chestnut leaf miner originated in Greece and was first found in the UK in 2002 in Wimbledon, London. CAPTION(S): Under threat: Competitors during the World Conker Championships The World Conker Championships are held annually on the second Sunday in October in the village of Ashton near Oundle in Northamptonshire, England. Since 1965, conker players from around the world have gathered on the village green to compete for the world title. held in Ashton, Northamptonshire. |
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