Whilst looking for Stigmella incognitella on my apple tree today (for a moment I thought I'd found one, but I've changed my mind) I came across a number of scoticella leaf-folds and even a couple of larvae wandering about, presumably looking for a pupation site. Here is one of them:
So Dave's new-found specimen in his garden does not seem to be particularly late. Interestingly, it is quite common here (South-east edge of Bucks). On the other hand I have never seen a Callisto denticulella - or, at least, never convincingly identified one. So - two apparently common moths which are not homogenously spread around.
Hi Andy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. I have never seen the adult of Callisto denticulella either but I can be reasonably confident of the one or two records I've had of mines on the same apple tree here in that I've also found the earlier gallery mine before the larva moves to its leaf-edge fold. I've seen a few people on Facebook etc, some of whom should perhaps know better, confidently attributing leaf-edge folds alone to denticulella when scoticella can look just the same.
I imagine it might be the case that neither species moves far from its host tree. For years I've regularly kept back examples of Parornix adults for dissection and scoticella has never appeared amongst them. However, my trap(s) are always run in the back garden but the apple tree is in the front. Maybe I ought to stick a trap under it at the appropriate times next year!