The insects stirred up irritability (10)
I believe the answer is:
tetchiness
'irritability' is the definition.
(tetchiness is a kind of irritability)
'the insects stirred up' is the wordplay.
'stirred up' indicates an anagram.
'the'+'insects'='theinsects'
'theinsects' is an anagram of 'TETCHINESS'.
(Another definition for tetchiness that I've seen is " Irritability".)
I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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