Local moth recorder Alison Robertson noticed a moth at the window at The Crichton, Dumfries, on the 14th August 2013, and found it to be an unfamiliar micro moth, so she took a photo and researched it. It looked very similar to some photos on the internet of Acrolepia autumnitella, a species mainly in the south and Midlands of England. This was perplexing. However, two days later, armed with knowledge of its foodplant, Alison checked for Bittersweet at The Crichton and found four leaves with tenanted mines and took photos.
The selection of photos were sent to Mark Young, keeper of the Scottish micro moth list who confirmed its identity and the fact that it was new to Scotland.
The find in many ways mirrors that of the foremost lepidopterist of our region, William Lennon, who worked at The Crichton when it was a sanitorium. On 6th September 1865, Lennon noticed a strange micro-moth on the outside of a window, but he was on the inside – to obtain it, he broke the glass and caught it. It turned out to be Euchromius ocellea, a first for Scotland and only the third for Britain. H. G. Knaggs, the editor of the Entomologists Monthly Magazine (vol. iii. 139) took it to the British Museum and compared it with the only known specimen there. The other was caught in Glamorganshire in 1862.
