[Dunn and Parrack treat Stigmella atricapitella and Stigmella ruficapitella together as follows. Both are now recorded as separate species.] Early records of these two species have been ignored as being equivocal, both in regard to identification of the imagines and the larval mines (MBGB l, pp. 239-240). [...] In vc 66 TCD finds this distinction, as far as relative abundance is concerned, is not evident in the result of the extensive breeding programme coupled with the date of emergence, which have shown a distribution pattern in which S. ruficapitella is decidedly more common thar S. atricapitella. In general, however, both species are well distributed and common [...] as is evident from the distribution maps.