Coleophora betulella

 Coleophora betulella (White Birch Case-bearer)

St. Pierre's Great Woods, Mounton

4th July 

Not a bad evening's work in this more dense area of the wood at Saint Pierre's Wood today. A total of 92 moths were recorded with the species count of 44 really quite good considering the conditions. Satin Lutestring and Blomer's Rivulet were some of the more important moths amongst the more commonly recorded macros here. 

Several micro's appeared too along with a white Coleophora species which I took an interest in. I had come across another a few years ago nearby but wanted to follow this one through to get an positive ID, so sent it off to Sam. I tend to avoid Coleophora species due to the difficulty in identifying them but this striking white one could be interesting and worth the extra work.

The white Coleophora was a toss-up between C. ibipennella and the closely related C. betulella and given both Oak and Birch trees were close by it really was a situation of dissection I'm afraid.

My thanks for Sam Bosanquet in undertaking this procedure in determining this guy was a localised Coleophora betulella (White Birch Case-bearer).

It is supposedly easier to find the case on Birch to avoid dissection but that is literally easier said than done. I certainly have not found it after looking quite thoroughly on occasion. With Coleophora ibipennella I finally did have some success in finding the case on Oak with two results a few months ago after thorough searches (see earlier posts).