A new species of moth named Carmenta brachyclados has been discovered in the UK’s Wales. The insects reached the UK constituent country after travelling over 7,200 km from their natural habitat in Guyana.
This discovery was made after the larvae were found in the boot bag of Ashleigh Cadet, a professional photographer who was touring the South American jungles.
As per Wales Online, the moths were found on a windowsill in February by Ashleigh and her daughter Daisy Cadet, 22, an ecologist. They had been in the cold Welsh weather for approximately 3 months since being forced into the unexpected journey.
Initially, Daisy assumed the moths were a native UK species. In a BBC interview, she mentioned, “When I first saw them, I knew they were clearwings and assumed it was a UK species like the six-banded clearwing.”
However, when she posted the images on social media, one of the followers told her that it was not a species found in the country. This prompted other specialists from the Natural History Museum to dig deeper into the matter.
DNA analysis revealed that the species was not only new to the UK but they were also previously unknown to science. This led Daisy to search her mother’s boot bag and they discovered two very fragile pieces of cocoons which were still preserved and wrapped in the mud from the boot that was used during the trip, the report added.
The moths are reportedly about 18mm long and have very clear wings with black borders and tips. On the upper part of their bodies, bordered by a yellow colour, there are blue lines. The lower part of their bodies are sulphur yellow in colour.
The warm and humid conditions within the boot bag reportedly enabled the tropical larvae to grow and transform into moths even though Wales has a rather severe winter.
Furthermore, a little fragment of woody plant material, that was discovered in the bag, seemed to be from a seed pod that belonged to a Mora excelsa tree species may have provided protection while in transit.
Daisy was elated over the discovery of the new species but worried about the negative effects of climate change.
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