Pretty orange moth with black and white bars

[Bruce Williams]

Northants garden on ivy growing up horse chestnut tree.

Length 4.5mm.

Help with identification appreciated.



Bruce

[charlieb]

Looks like a Horse Chestnut Leaf-miner Cameraria ohridella

[Dogghound]

Its Cameraria ohridella the Horse Chestnut leaf-miner. So the area where you found it fits nicely.

[Bruce Williams]

Thanks for the id Charlie and Dan.

Seems this is a fairly new arrival in the UK being first seen in the London Borough of Wimbledon in July 2002. It's also a bit of a pest from what I've been reading and in severe cases C. ohridella larvae have been known to completely strip the leaves from a tree as early as July. There were a lot of them - maybe ten or more in an area of ivy about the size of a dinner plate.

Bruce

[Dogghound]

Yes they can be quite destructive, they may also weaken the tree leaving it open to fungal infections in severe cases.

[tristanba]

From what I understand the Bleeding Canker infection is much more detrimental to Horse Chestnuts than Cameraria although the defoliation caused by this moth can be very extensive

[aeshna5]

Horse Chestnuts do seem to cope with the ravages of this moth. The trees often look really awful by August, though not so severe the last couple of very wet summers, but at the moment around London the trees are looking magnificent in full bloom. I've been seeing the moths for about 2 weeks now.

The canker is the real threat to these trees.

[Jenny W]

I've heard that the only real effect they have on the trees is reducing the size of the conkers. The defoliation as aeshna says does not seem to have much of an effect on them.

I wonder however, if after a number of years they will start to be affected more noticeably (after all the leaf miner has only been here 7 years) - say if conker quality as well as size is also reduced, this is going to reduce the quality of new trees (I appreciate the fact that this will take hundreds of years!).

However, dare I say this...............

Horse Chestnuts aren't native.................(please no-one start an arguement over native/non-native etc. etc.)

I've heard too that Cameraria will also go for Sycamore.................

[Bruce Williams]

Thanks for your interesting comments everyone.

Concerning the Horse Chestnut: I'm a lover of historical novels, especially those that have a valid historical framework. I can heartily recommend "Earthly Joys" by Philippa Gregory. The story is set in the early 1600 and is based on the life of John Tradescant, gardener to Sir Robert Cecil. He (JT) was a great collector of plants and trees and was responsible for introducing the Horse Chestnut into England (quite a lot about this in the book). It's very well written (like most of her work) and is a fascinating story to boot.

If you're interested, the paperback can be picked up on Amazon for one penny plus postage (search on title) - the hardback will cost you a couple of quid plus postage.

Bruce