The Gelechiid Recording Scheme covers 167 species in the family Gelechiidae (comprising 54 genera) recorded in the British Isles. It also, following common practise, includes species recorded from the Channel Islands.
The aims of the Scheme are:
- to encourage interest in, and recording of, gelechiid moths
- to produce provisional species distribution maps at 10km level or better
- to increase knowledge of this family's ecology and status in order to aid their conservation
- to highlight areas where further research is needed
NEWS
21st December 2024 Recent attempts to upload new photos onto this website have been unsuccessful due to a website software issue. We hope this will be resolved in early January 2025.
GENERAL
Additional photographs of habitats, larval feeding signs, larvae and imago are being regularly added. Please contact us if you have material you would like to contribute to the website s.palmer12(at)btopenworld.com
August 2024
Scrobiplapa pauperella (Heinemann, 1870) has been renamed S. freyii (Scott, 1859) - Beavan and Heckford, 2024 (full reference available under S. freyii in Publication section).
November 2023
Website software 'upgrade' completed by hosts, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. Two features were lost during the upgrades. One is in the process of being reinserted (photograph Copyright symbols); please bear in mind that all photos on this site remain the property of the photographer and permission should be sought from them for their use. The 'previous and next' facility for both Species and Images is unfortunately not available on the upgraded software.
July 2022
The Norwegian Entomological Society have published The Gelechiidae of North-West Europe by Keld Gregersen and Ole Karsholt. At well over 900 pages and covering 269 species, this book contains much original research and a fresh and high quality approach to coverage of this intriguing family of moths. It is unique in its approach, with excellent photographic material of live moths (of many species), incredible side shots of the palps of all species, some of the larvae, feeding signs and habitats etc, whilst also incorporating all of the traditional detailed taxonomic coverage one would expect from these authors. Good quality colour plates of set specimens and black and white genitalia photos covering all species are topped off with a huge Reference section. We tend to take this for granted, but it must be said that we are so fortunate that the book is all in English and covers the whole of the British Isles!
February 2022
Two species have been added to the British list of Gelechiidae in recent months.
35.0531 Isophrictis anthemidella (Wocke, 1871), Ent. Rec. 134: 7-15 (2022) - considered to be a resident species.
35.1275 Symmetrischema pallidochrella (Chambers, 1872), Ent. Gaz. 72: 160-162 (2021) - an Adventive species.
January 2022
The on-line provisional distribution maps were updated in January 2022. The next planned update will be in January 2024.
January 2021
Neotelphusa Janse, 1958 replaces the genus Teleiodes in 35.145 T. sequax - becoming Neotelphusa sequax. It should be noted that T. flavimaculella is not affected by this change. Entomologist's Record 133: 1-8 (2021).
Taxonomic reordering. It should be noted that The Commented Checklist of European Gelechiidae (Huemer & Karsholt, 2020) places the genera of the Anomologinae and the genus Teleiopsis (within Gelechiinae) in a different taxonomic order to the Checklist of the Lepidoptera of the British Isles (Agassiz, Beavan and Heckford, 2013, as subsequently amended). The same paper also places species in the genera Bryotropha, Athrips and Scrobipalpa in a different taxonomiic order. These changes are not reflected in changes to the British Checklist or on this website.
April 2020
European Gelechiidae checklist. Peter Huemer and Ole Karsholt have produced a 'Commented checklist of European Gelechiidae' covering 865 species in 109 genera. This authoritative and extremely valuable checklist includes a complete coverage of proved synonyms of species and at generic level. For British recorded species the only added synonym is under Metzneria aestivella. For publication details see under Published Papers (General).
Eulamprotes becomes Oxypteryx. An update to Agassiz, Beavan and Heckford, 2013 (Checklist of the Lepidoptera of the British Isles), published in the Entomologist's Record 132: 2-7 (2020) announced that the genus Eulamprotes is now a junior synonym of Oxypteryx. This affects four British species and all relevant content has been updated accordingly on this website.
Conservation publication. A study entitled Complex long-term biodiversity change amongst Invertebrates, Bryophytes and Lichens has recently been published. Data from the Gelechiid Recording Scheme (GRS) covering a number of Gelechiid species was used in this study and the senior author, Dr. Charlotte Outhwaite, has asked that the GRS share the outcome with those who have provided records to the Scheme. Charlie says "I would like them to know what their efforts have contributed to and that I am very grateful for their contribution". If you'd like to view the trends for the individual Gelechiid species picked for this study see https://shiny-apps.ceh.ac.uk/speciesplotviewer/.
GENERAL
Additional photographs of habitats, larval feeding signs, larvae and imago are being regularly added. Please contact us if you have material you would like to contribute to the website s.palmer12(at)btopenworld.com