Thank you Joel and Isabel, Sorry there is no scale on the photos of the webbing. The casings are small, about 2mm long, much smaller than casings from webbing clothes moths.
I don't know about untreated wood being used in the display, but that's a possibility. Isabel, Old casings from wcm were found on some objects in other parts of the museum, but again, the webbing and casings on the barkcloth look different from wcm, at least in my experience. There's no food source for wcm in that display case or in adjacent cases and no wcm were spotted there. I'm due to go back to Nairobi and helping staff improve on pest monitoring is one of the aims of the project. I wasn't going to take pheromone traps, but rather make traps on site with double-sided tape so that monitoring is sustainable in the future (traps are not easily sourced in Kenya). I'll try to get a pheromone trap and I'm happy to send you wcm samples if I'm successful in catching some. I'll come back to you directly. Many thanks, Helene -----Original Message----- From: pestlist@googlegroups.com <pestlist@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Voron, Joel Sent: 29 March 2022 20:33 To: pestlist@googlegroups.com Subject: [PestList] Re: Help with Kenyan insect i.d. please + question relating to webbing found on barkcloth CAUTION: This mail originated from OUTSIDE the British Museum network. Treat hyperlinks and attachments in this email with caution. If you have any doubts, please contact IS Support. What size are these. They look like gall or wood wasps to me. Has anyone used untreated wood or logs in a display? JTV ________________________________________ From: pestlist@googlegroups.com <pestlist@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Novick, Isabel <inov...@bu.edu> Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2022 3:29 PM To: pestlist@googlegroups.com Subject: [PestList] Re: Help with Kenyan insect i.d. please + question relating to webbing found on barkcloth [CAUTION: This message originated from outside the Foundation. Do not click links, open attachments or take action unless you know the contents are safe] Hi Helene, I saw your email from the pestlist email chain. I am a PhD student at Boston University studying webbing clothes moths-- investigating their biogeography, evolutionary genomics, and speciation. Africa is the hypothesized origin of this species, and getting samples from the continent is crucial to building an accurate phylogenetic tree. I have been trying to get samples from Africa, and seeing your photos of webbing on artifacts in a Kenyan museum is really interesting to me. I see that you work for the British Museum, are you doing contract work for the Kenyan museum? Do you know if it would be possible to get a pheromone baited moth trap into that museum to see if the source of the webbing is from clothes moths? I can cover shipping and provide a trap! If the original insects are parasitic wasps, they may be parasitizing webbing clothes moths-- is this museum monitoring wcm populations? Let me know, and thanks for your time! Isabel Novick inov...@bu.edu ________________________________ From: 'Helene Delaunay' via MuseumPests <pestlist@googlegroups.com> Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2022 1:07 PM To: pestlist@googlegroups.com <pestlist@googlegroups.com> Subject: [PestList] Help with Kenyan insect i.d. please + question relating to webbing found on barkcloth Hello, I wonder if someone could help with the identification of this insect, found at the back of a painting on goat hide in a museum in Nairobi, Kenya. The three photos are of the same insect under different angles. Would anyone know whether it is an endemic pest, and what it feeds on, or just a non-pest insect? What puzzles me is that live flying insects of a similar size were spotted in one of the showcases of the museum in a nearby room. I tried to catch one of these but failed! (there was no insect trap) The showcase contains only inorganic materials, apart from a few unaffected amber beads. The insects have left webbing on the barkcloth lining the back of the showcase which is used as a background for the display. Debris were also spotted on a glass shelf (see photos 001 & 004). There is no obvious grazing on the barkcloth, but “loose webbing” is present behind a display label (photo 005). Is it possible that the insects are not feeding of the barkcloth, but just hatching on it? It seems weird that they would settle in a display case containing inorganic objects, when there are many other display cases nearby, with the same barkcloth background, containing objects made of organic / plant material. I’m trying to gage how likely it is that the infestation could spread to collection objects made of other plant materials and would be grateful if anyone could shed some light on this. Many thanks, Helene Helene Delaunay | Organics Conservator Conservation, Collection Care The British Museum, Great Russell Street London WC1B 3DG hdelau...@britishmuseum.org<mailto:hdelau...@britishmuseum.org> | +44 (0) 20 7323 8252 Please note: I work 3 days / week, Monday to Wednesday. Email status: OFFICIAL -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MuseumPests" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to pestlist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<mailto:pestlist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com>. 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