New moth species identified for first time in Province

The False Cacao moth was discovered by Andrew Crory, who started moth trapping there when he was a seasonal warden at the reserve in 2000.

Today Mr Crory works as a nature reserves manager for Ulster Wildlife but continues to volunteer for the National Trust at Murlough NNR, and as an expert moth trapper he also holds the title of Northern Ireland Moth Recorder.

He said: “During the summer season I can see over 100 species (and many hundreds of individuals) in the one trap each day. I can spend an hour or more recording every moth by species and their number. It can lead to a few headaches, as moths can be tricky to identify!”

The discovery of the False Cacao moth brings the species count for moths and butterflies at Murlough National Nature Reserve to 793, the largest number of moths and butterflies recorded at a site in Northern Ireland.

Mr Crory added: “Amazingly, Murlough NNR has had migrant moths from southern Europe, the Tropics and even one from North America - Stephens’ Gem - brought here by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and still the only Irish record. At the time I started to compile the list of moths for Murlough there were around 250 species recorded - not bad that over 500 more have been recorded since, give me another 20 years and I’m hoping that figure will be closer to 900.”