A Stroud man has played his part in a rare moth discovery.
Two moths were discovered in a home in Wales after they had travelled thousands of miles from their natural jungle habitat and were previously unknown to science.
Scientists studying the two clearwing moths believe that the animals, while still larvae, had inadvertently latched on to a photographer’s boot before ending up in Port Talbot.
They were discovered on a windowsill by the photographer, Ashleigh, and her daughter and ecologist, Daisy Cadet.
Three months earlier, Ms Cadet’s mother had visited a tropical jungle 4,500 miles away in Guyana.
The species, which measures only about 18mm long, has been named Carmenta brachyclados.
It is marked by iridescent blue and yellow stripes and has transparent wings, with black veins and tips.
Stroud conservationist and entomologist Graeme Davis spotted a post on Instagram from Daisy, he said: “I remember reading that Daisy was excited about seeing her first six belted clearwing moth, with a picture attached. I immediately questioned it, because it didn’t look like anything I’d seen before. Also, it was the wrong time of year to see clearwings.”
Graeme’s research came up blank and he came to the conclusion the moth wasn’t even a European species.
He added: “I sent the images to Les Evans-Hill at Butterfly Conservation who then forwarded to the Natural History Museum, who then queried it with a museum in America. It appears the larvae had hitched a ride in Ashleigh’s boot bag, and travelled a distance of 4,500 miles from a tropical jungle in Guyana.
“I’m really proud to have played a small role in the discovery of this new species of moth and the whole process from start to finish, is a really good example of citizen science.”
