Hermit-crab-like tree crevice dweller

[marcusgilchrist]

This has mystified me for years and when I tell people about it, they usually treat me like I imagined the whole thing. In the mid 80s I found a large number of hermit-crab-like invertebrates living in the bark crevices of one or two trees which lined the road beside my bus-stop near Alexandra Park Library in Muswell Hill in North London. They had soft conical bark-coloured "shells" about 6 or 7 mm long, which did not look like they were part of the creature because they were rough and irregular -- as if they had made them and then crawled inside. They walked like hermit crabs:legs sticking out the "shell" which waved about as they crawled slowly up and down the bark. I took one to school and showed the biology teacher. She had no idea what it was. Later that year it looked as though they were all dead with just traces of the conical shells left -- though in retrospect maybe they were larvae and they pupated or something. There was little sign of them the following year. I've been so precise about the location and time period because I've never seen or heard of these animals anywhere else since. Does anyone know what they were?

[JRsbugs]

Hi marcus and welcome to WAB!

I would say they are Horse Chestnut scale insects. They do sort of convert themselves to eggs using their outer shell as a cover. Creepy looking things they are too!

Janet

[charlieb]

Maybe a micro moth larva; have a look at UKMoths - Luffia ferchaultella

[marcusgilchrist]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! JRsbugs, thanks for the welcome - I looked at the Horse Chestnut scale insects and some of them were similar to what I remember; but I'm pretty sure that charlieb has got it: luffia ferchaultella or maybe luffia lapidella. When I followed the link and saw the picture I laughed and clapped like a child - lucky there were no witnesses. In fact I'm still grinning.