Remarkable records of Microlepidoptera in Sweden during 2019

Abstract

This is the 47th annual report on noteworthy finds of Microlepidoptera in Sweden. During the field season of 2019 the temperature was about 2 degrees above the average in the south half of Sweden with some short periods of near normal conditions. The precipitation was under the annual average in the southeast but near the normal in the rest of Sweden. Occasionally winds from the east or south caused inflow of species seldom or never observed in Sweden.

Six new microlepidoptera species are included to the Swedish checklist of Lepidoptera. Typical mines of Stigmella freyella (Heyden, 1858) were found on Convolvulis arvensis on Öland, probably a resident in Sweden. The introduced moth Tuta absoluta (Meyrick, 1917) was discovered on imported tomatoes, presumably originating from Spain. Gelechia senticetella (Staudinger, 1859) was caught in a ligh-trap in Skåne, maybe the result of an occasional influx of Lepidoptera from the south. The plume moth Hellinisa inulae (Zeller 1852) was found on the host plants Inula britannica in the southwest corner of Skåne. The species is considered to be repro-ducing in Sweden. Several Sciota rhenella (Zincken, 1818) were attracted to light on Gotland in a grove with e.g. aspen Populus tremula. Finally, in the end of October a specimen of Spoladea recurvalis (Fabricius, 1775) was captured in a light trap in the southeast corner of Skåne, certainly a migrating specimen.

The number of Microlepidoptera recorded in Sweden is now 1766.