Monday 18 March 2013

Psychoides

Yesterday, I revisited the site, at which I found the Psychoides (see my previous post) and on examining a couple of larvae, I am now convinced that the species involved is filicivora, which is a new species for me. Today, I took a look at two larvae in my garden. One was on a Polystichum aculeatum variety and the other on Asplenium scolopendrium. Both seemed to be P. filicovora, which is a bit of a mystery because the only adult Psychoides I've seen in the garden were P. verhuella, which begs the question; do adults of P. filicifora always have the pale tornal spot or do I have both species in the garden? I certainly do not intend disturbing every larva I can find to answer this.

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like you might have both species. I've not seen verhuella here, but filicivora is very common and all those I've seen appear the same to me, so presumably it's monomorphic?

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