Rare caterpillar found in reserve

Rare caterpillar found in reserve

30 September 2015

A NEWCASTLE moth and butterfly expert has uncovered an Ireland-first at Murlough National Nature Reserve.

Andrew Crory has discovered a leaf-mining caterpillar on an oak leaf in the Dundrum reserve which has never before been recorded in Ireland.

After his discovery Andrew contacted other moth experts, Dave Allen and John Langmaid , who confirmed the discovery as Ectoedemia quinquella, a caterpillar which lives inside a leaf and which is rarely, if ever, encountered as an adult in the wild.

They can be recognised by the different patterns on the leaf, the species of plants that they choose to eat and what the caterpillar looks like. 

The caterpillar in this photograph is the light patch, just above-left of the brown squiggly line which is a trail of caterpillar poo. 

Amazingly, another leaf-miner moth on the same oak leaf tuned out to be Ectoedemia albifasciella - the first recorded in Co. Down. To date 697 species of moths and butterflies have been recorded at Murlough reserve.