Just a quick note to say I picked up the second (on the assumption no-one else has seen it recently) Tuta absoluta for Suffolk last night. I reported this species in my post of 11th October last year for the specimen captured by Matthew Deans at Bawdsey Hall on the 5th of that month. A serious pest of tomatoes in the Mediterranean area that has been spreading. It is still to be hoped that although this record is so much earlier in the year that it is non-the-less an immigrant. A line of thunderstorms came up from France and along the Suffolk coast last night. Watch out for it. Superficially looks like a small Scrobipalpa and a lens then shows the intricate patterning of spots and colouring which is consistent.
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A little premature in my post since I had a second one in the trap. Possibly a third that escaped before close examination. Suggests quite a few may have landed in the country.
I’m getting a bit worried now – are my tomatoes in the greenhouse safe? No others seem to have been reported so perhaps locally bred? Are there any tomato growers nearby perhaps? Be interesting to see if anyone else turns it up.
Neil
I feel reasonably confident they are immigrant and I do not know of any local large scale tomato growers but there may be some in Newbourne. Both were males which is perhaps more likely than the female to be mobile. As for others not recording it, you really do have to be into micros to bother to look at it. Last year one other was identified on the south coast at the same time as Matthews. But yes keep a watch on your tomatoes.