Hunt underway in Scotland for rare endangered moth as public urged to get involved

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Scots have been urged to join the hunt for a moth just a few millimetres long in order to save it from becoming extinct. The tiny Highland nymph is currently on the brink of extinction in the UK as a result of dwindling habitat.

Also known as the Alpine coffee moth because of its colouration, the species is native to the Alps and Scandinavia The Highland nymph was recorded in the UK for the first time in 1983.

It lives on two species of mountain willows, where its caterpillars consume the inside of leaves.Ecologists previously logged the species in the 1990s, but it had not been seen in Scotland for 20 years until a team from wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation rediscovered it in 2024 in a colony that had just 30 to 40 individuals.

The charity is now appealing for volunteers to join a Scotland-wide search for more colonies.With concerns that the moth is on the edge of extinction in the UK as a result of grazing animals eating away at their habitat, experts have called for action to manage deer and sheep populations.