Leafmines: Psychoides filicivora, 2

19 Monday Dec 2022

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Common polypody, leaf-miner on fern, leaf-mining moth larvae, leaf-mining moths, Polypodium vulgare agg, Psychoides filicivora

At the start of this year I found my first moth larvae living in self-constructed coverings of spores on the underside of fern leaves. At that occasion, the ferns were Hart’s-tongues (Asplenium scolopendrium) and the moth larvae were Psychoides filicivora. However, there is another moth species that lives like this on fern fronds so, when I found this larva last week on one of the Polypody fern species (Polypodium vulgare sensu lato), I was hoping I’d found the second species, Psychoides verhuella. Unfortunately, I had not but I was still pleased to have found P. filicivora on a different fern species. My search for the other moth species continues.

221219 psychoides filicivora

Leafmines: Psychoides filicivora

03 Monday Jan 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, plants

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Tags

British leafmines, Hart's tongue, leaf-mining moths, leafmines on Hart's-tongue, moth larvae on Hart's-tongue, Psychoides filicivora

Once again, I was alerted to this little leafminer by a tweet from Rob Edmunds (@leafminerman), one of the brains behind the British Leafminers website, and I’ve now found it at three local sites where Hart’s-tongue fern (Phyllitis scolopendrium) is plentiful, though it can also be found on a couple of other fern species.

220103 Psychoides filicivora (1)

These are the larvae of Psychoides filicivora, a tiny brown moth (you can see the adult on the UK Moths website here), whose larvae munch on the fern fronds and hide away under little ‘nests’ of sporangia on the undersides of the fronds.

There is another very similar moth species that also lives on fern fronds, Psychoides verhuella – so far, I’ve only found P. filicivora – but the British Leafminers website has very good information on both, as well as an excellent side-by-side comparison image of their larvae.