July 2020 – MothsIreland

11.005 bf179 Lichen Case-bearer Dahlica lichenella -New to Ireland

Uncategorized / July 31, 2020

Cliff Henry found a number of case-bearing moth larvae (bagworms) on the walls of the National Trust, Giant’s Causeway offices 25th October 2018. Cases of these Psychids are not always easy to speciate and after Cliff brought them to me I circulated images to Ben Smart and J.R. Langmaid. Based on the larva they initially thought they were likely to be 11.002 175 Narycia duplicella. This was proved incorrect when I bred through a female in early 2019 which was wingless (Narycia has fully winged adults) and led me to believe it was in fact a Dahlica species. Images were circulated and a specimen sent to Ken Bond for dissection. Unfortunately the various structures examined did not lead to a definitive answer as the results were ambiguous.

As a last resort a freshly collected specimen was sent to the editor of Atropos journal who arranged DNA analysis to finally get a definitive identification. This finally confirmed the specimens as Dahlica lichenella. This was the original putative identification by Cliff! This species is new to Ireland.

11.005 79 Lichen Case-bearer Dahlica lichenella. Photo by Roy Anderson

Dave Allen

15.0931 Phyllocnistis citrella – New to Ireland

Leaf Mine, New to Ireland / July 21, 2020

On 24^th January I was in Sainsbury’s at Forestside, Belfast, Co. Down doing the weekly shop. I was well aware that oranges and lemons with leaves in GB supermarkets had been producing mines of the “snail trail” leaf mining micromoth Phyllocnistis citrella. I had searched in previous years without success. On a recent trip to Lanzarote I had found fresh mines on a lemon tree in Manrique’s garden so I was well tuned-in! My eyes were drawn to boxes of “Taste the Difference” easy-peel oranges as I could see that the fruit had sprays of leaves attached. I opened the first box and was somewhat amazed to see mines on the first leaves. In fact most boxes had the leaf mines. The mines are only in the leaf epidermis and on close inspection a thin line of black frass is visible. Fresh mines are white in appearance but after being vacated they quickly turn brown.

The oranges had been imported from Spain where this species can occur in pest proportions. Surprisingly there are no previous records of this adventive but having been alerted Ted Rolston and Andy Crory found mined leaves (and fruit) on oranges in a number of other outlets. Christmas is apparently the best time to look so you might find a welcome Xmas present if you look hard enough.

Dave Allen

4.088 Ectoedemia heringella – New to Ireland

Leaf Mine, New to Ireland / July 2, 2020

4.088 BF36a. Ectoedemia heringella (Mariani, 1939)

On 5^th May 2020 Jamie O’Neill posted images on Insects & Invertebrates Ireland Facebook page of an abundant leaf miner that he found on Evergreen Oak in Phoenix Park, Dublin. He putatively identified them as E. heringella. This was quickly confirmed by Stuart Dunlop and Dave Allen (DA) who also confirmed it, after consultation with Ken Bond, as “New to Ireland”. A few weeks later Philip Strickland contacted DA with images of the same species from the same locality but taken on 13th February 2017! The mines are persistent so can be found in any month of the year. The species has obviously been established here for a number of years but remained undetected. If it follows the same pattern as in GB, where it was first found close to Kew Gardens in London, then it will certainly colonise other parts of Ireland.