Two moths discovered in a home in south Wales had travelled thousands of miles from their natural jungle habitat and were previously unknown to science, the Natural History Museum has found.
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 on a cold February afternoon by the photographer, Ashleigh, and her daughter and ecologist, Daisy Cadet.
Ms Cadet’s mother had visited a tropical jungle in Guyana three months earlier.
Scientists have described it as an “improbable event” that “defies rational explanation”.
Ms Cadet said: “When I first saw them, I knew they were clearwings and assumed it was a UK species, like the six-banded clearwing.”
She added: “Finding a new moth was exciting enough, but at this point, I had no idea it was so unusual”.
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One was stationary, “probably because the house was too cold at the time”, while the other next to it had already died.
Wanting to find out more about the surprise discovery, Ms Cadet posted photos on Instagram, prompting someone to get in touch to suggest it didn’t appear to be a known UK species.
The images were shared further before they eventually reached two moth experts at the Natural History Museum, Mark Sterling and David Lees.
Ms Cadet said: “From there, it was a few months of email chains and wild-goose – or moth – chasing to work out what the moth was, and how it got to Wales.”
Through DNA analysis, the scientists confirmed not only were the moths not from the UK, but they had never previously been discovered.
So Ms Cadet decided to look inside her mother’s boot bag, which Ashleigh had taken with her during her photography trip to Guyana.
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The pair found the remains of two delicate cocoons, buried in the mud from the boots Ashleigh had worn on the trip.
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.
A small piece of vegetation, with what looked like holes bored by the moths as caterpillars, was also found inside the bag.
The woody fragment is suspected to be a seed pod, which protects the larvae from being eaten or damaged during the long journey.
And they were probably able to survive the cold Welsh winter thanks to the humidity and warmer temperature inside the bag.
Mark Sterling, a scientific associate at the Natural History Museum, said: “Clearwing moths are notoriously difficult to find, even by professional entomologists.
“They are even more difficult to rear from larvae or pupae, which usually dry out or go mouldy within a few days of collection.”
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The chances of two clearwing moths from tropical jungles of South America “successfully emerging in South Wales, over three months after they arrived, in cold Welsh winter, and being preserved in good condition, is extraordinary”, he said.
“The improbability of this event defies rational explanation.
“However, whilst in Guyana, Ashleigh was told that if she left an offering of tobacco to the jungle spirits she would be shown something beautiful from the jungle, so that is what she did.
“We conclude in the paper that it must have been very good tobacco.”
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Ms Cadet said while she felt “incredibly lucky” to have played a role in discovering a new moth species, she also experienced “a lot of sadness and worry” about how many others are being lost to climate change.
She said: “Awareness is no longer enough, and we need urgent, meaningful action to protect what remains.”
