Horse chestnut trees being damaged by moth

A moth which damages horse chestnut trees is on the advance across Ireland and Britain, scientists have said.

The leaf-mining moth, Cameraria orhidella — whose larvae eat into leaves producing brown blotches and can be so numerous that the tree’s leaves turn brown so it looks like autumn has come early — first arrived in London in 2002.

It had reached Newcastle by 2010, where it temporarily stopped, but it was recorded in Dublin in 2013 and in Belfast last year.