An analytical and numerical kinetic analysis of the collisionless electrostatic ion cyclotron instability in dusty plasmas (Chow and Rosenberg, Planet. Space Sci. 43, 613-618, 1995) is compared with recent experimental results (Barkan et al., Planet. Space Sci. 43, 905-908, 1995). The analysis uses standard linear Vlasov theory to predict the critical drift required to drive the instability. It is shown that the results are consistent with the observations of the laboratory experiment.