Pine Needle-moth Batrachedra confusella

This species was described as distinct from Spruce Needle-moth Batrachedra pinicolella in 2022 and subsequent re-examination of genitalia preps of Batrachedra pinicolella taken in the UK has shown that many of them in fact relate to Batrachedra confusella. It was formerly assigned the vernacular name Confused Cosmet.

No consistent external differences between the two species have been described but there are minor differences in genitalia (and the DNA is apparently distinct). The differences in genitalia are described in a paper by Peter Hall and Colin Plant in Ent Rec 134 (2022).

Of the 14 "Batrachedra pinicolella" I recorded prior to 2022, I only have a prep and photos of the genitalia of one, and based on my understanding of the differences as described in the Ent Rec paper, it was confusella. In particular the cornutus at the tip of the aedeagus is reasonably clear and the hairs on the uncus (what few of them that were remaining) are long. I am not convinced about the usefulness of the differences described in the shape of the valvae. The described differences look clear enough in the plate comparing a single male prep of pinicolella with a single male prep of confusella, but the next plate shows 3 preps of confusella with variation that seem to me to completely overlap the prep of pinicolella.

male Pine Needle-moth Batrachedra confusella showing genitalia (first genitalia photo is before setting, the rest taken in 2022 long after the cover slip was placed), Woodcock Corner near Selbrigg (Norfolk, UK), 12th July 2014