One of the tiniest moths I ’ ve ever seen

Yesterday, I was tidying up egg cartons and the moth trap when I noticed a Least Carpet roosting on a window frame, I stepped up with a pot to catch it so I could release it into the back garden but spotted another tiny moth next to it. At this point, I wasn’t even sure it was a moth. It looked orange with what seemed to be white stripes. I grabbed a quick phone macro shot, before potting it. It wasn’t a species I’d noticed or recorded before, but the ObsIdentify app ticked it as the Horse-chestnut Leafminer, Cameraria ohridella. This was confirmed by a quick look at the species page on UK Moths. I set up my macro “studio” and got some closeups of the moth against a matte white background, once it would sit still for more than a second or two. The moth is a mere 4 millimetres, I’d say, thank goodness for macro lenses and extension tubes. Horse Chestnut Leafminer, 4mm longAs the moth’s name would suggest, the tiny larvae of this moth species, grow inside leaves of the Horse Chestnut tree, nibbling their way around the interior of the leaf and forming what are referred to as leaf mines. An infestation of this moth can ravage a tree leaving its leaves brown and withered at the end of summer and giving the appearance of imminent death in the tree. Thankfully, the damage done by the leafminers, while more than cosmetic, does not seem to harm the Horse Chestnuts. They lose their leaves in the autumn, as all deciduous trees are wont to do. ...
Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Lepidoptera Source Type: blogs