Leafmines: Coleophora lutipennella

01 Monday May 2023

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British moths, case-bearing larvae, Case-bearing moth, Coleophora, Coleophora lutipennella, Common oak case-bearer, moth larvae on Oak

It’s often the way that, while looking for one thing, I find another. In this case, I was checking for eggs or larvae on the newly opening buds and flowers of an Oak tree where I’ve previously seen Purple hairstreak butterflies. No luck with those but I did find this …

230501 Coleophora lutipennella (1)

It’s the larva of the Common oak case-bearer moth (Coleophora lutipennella) – you can see the pretty little adult moth on the UK Moths website here. These case-bearing moths remind me a bit of snails, spending their larval stage in a home they carry around with them, though the moths don’t grow their own – they weave theirs from bits of vegetation and silk. In the photo below, you can see the larva poking its head out from the bottom of its case.

230501 Coleophora lutipennella (2)

It can be difficult to distinguish between the larvae of two very similar case-bearing moths, this one and Coleophora flavipennella. I had my find confirmed by expert Rob Edmunds, who manages the British Leafminers website. The difference between the two cases is minor but fascinating, the presence or not of a small hump of leaf tissue built in to the case – there’s an explanation and some excellent photos on the website’s June 2004 newsletter.

Leafmines: Coleophora albitarsella

14 Monday Nov 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, plants

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blotch leafmines, British leafmines, case-bearing larva, Case-bearing moth, Coleophora albitarsella, leafmines on Ground-ivy, leafmining moth larvae

For months, both earlier this year and in recent weeks, I’ve been casting an eye over all the patches of Ground-ivy (Glechoma hederacea) I’ve noticed so I was delighted, last Friday, to finally find what I’ve been searching for, a new leafminer. Even better, as well as the tell-tale blotches on several leaves, when I turned over one leaf there was also an empty larval case.

221114 coleophora albitarsella (1)

These are the feeding signs for the larvae of the little moth Coleophora albitarsella (also known as the White-legged case-bearer, you can see the rather non-descript adult moth on the UK Moths website here), which munches on a wide variety of different plants (see full list on the British Leafminers website here). This moth species is relatively scarce in Glamorgan, with just a few sightings this millennium; in fact, it’s not very common anywhere in the UK, with just 109 records currently showing in the NBN Atlas (110, when mine is added) , so I feel rather privileged to have found these leafmines.

221114 coleophora albitarsella (2)

Leafmines: Coleophora badiipennella

25 Monday Oct 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, trees

≈ 2 Comments

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Case-bearing moth, Coleophora badiipennella, leaf-mining moth, leafminer, leafmines on Wych elm, Pale elm case-bearer

This might not look like much but I’ve been looking for one of these for perhaps a year, at least during the months when it was around to be found. And if I hadn’t been looking closely at the leaves of this Wych elm, I could so easily have missed it. These are the leafmine and the case of Coleophora badiipennella, the Pale Elm Case-bearer (click on the link here to see the adult moth on the UK Moths website).

According to the British Leafminers website, the larva:

initially forms a gallery along the midrib, which then goes out along a vein (see photo). The end of this gallery is then excised to construct the first case. It then feeds close to this and makes several small mines …

211025 coleophora badiipennalla (2)

If you look at my photo above, you can see where the larva has made a second mine below the first – you can see the tiny hole where it would have attached itself – before moving to the third mine where it was then feeding. I haven’t been able to find much information about pupation but I presume the larva remains in its case, falls to the ground either still attached to its leaf when the leaf falls or after detaching itself, and over-winters on the ground. It seems many of these leafminers are not very well studied … yet.

Oak: mothy goodness

27 Thursday May 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, trees

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Brindled green, British moths, Case-bearing moth, Coleophora flavipennella, Coleophora lutipennella, Dryobotodes eremite, moth larvae, moth larvae on Oak, moths on Oak, Oak leaves

As you can see from the last two days’ blogs, there was much to be found on Oak leaves in my local woodlands on Sunday. These are two more finds, both relating to moths. This first was found on the same tree as the Purple hairstreak larva and, thanks to some help from Twitter moth-ers, I can tell you this is the larva of the Brindled green moth (Dryobotodes eremite) (you can see the adult moth on the UK Moths website here).

210527 brindled green larva

The wonderfully crafted cases in the photos below contain the larvae of either Coleophora lutipennella or Coleophora flavipennella – apparently, it’s not possible to determine the species without waiting for the adult moths to hatch and then dissecting their genitalia, which I’m not going to do. I’m happy just to admire their silk-weaving skills.

210527 Coleophora lutipennella or flavipennella (1)

210527 Coleophora lutipennella or flavipennella (2)

210527 Coleophora lutipennella or flavipennella (3)

The curious case of the case-bearer

26 Thursday Jan 2017

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 7 Comments

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case-bearing caterpillar, case-bearing larva, Case-bearing moth, moth larva, Tinea pellionella, Tineola bisselliella

This afternoon I realised I was not living alone in my new flat – this tiny creature very stupidly decided to climb one of the walls, thus bringing upon itself a level of attention that would ultimately lead to its demise. It’s the larva of one of the Case-bearing moths (possibly Tinea pellionella or Tineola bisselliella, or maybe something else entirely) that likes to chew your carpets threadbare or devour the fibres in your favourite woollen jumper.

As you can see it’s constructed itself a cosy little home which it can very easily move around. The case is open-ended so, as I discovered when waiting for it to poke its head out one end, it can actually turn around inside and poke its head out the other end if danger (or a gigantic human with a camera lens) threatens.

170126-case-bearing-moth-4

I actually had the carpet professionally cleaned before I moved in here so this little fellow must’ve been hiding somewhere, or it came along for the ride from my old abode. Sweet as that may sound, I do not want to be its friend, and it has now left the building!

170126-case-bearing-moth-3