White Prominent

Two moths that are so rare in Great Britain as to be almost mythical have been re-discovered – one in Scotland the other in Ireland. A field centre’s moth count training session in Invernesshire earlier this year was amazed to find a black-winged, orange-bodied micro-moth by the name of Ethmia pyrausta. It has only ever been recorded in the UK on five occasions, the first being in 1853, close to this 2008 sighting.


But a micro-moth is nothing like so exciting as the discovery of the macro-moth Leucodonta bicoloria – the White Prominent. This turned up in County Kerry on 7th June (National Moth Night) Ireland, 70 years after it was last seen. In total seven of them were found over the next two nights indicating a reasonably healthy population.