Wildlife

James Lowen

On 3 September, Dave and Pauline Jones opened the moth trap in their garden in Stoke Holy Cross, south of Norwich. One moth initially mystified them, but they subsequently identified it as Norfolk Snout. The moth is unusual in that it has distinctive curled ‘horns’ on its palps (a snout-like protrusion from the head). The identification was confirmed later that day by Steve Palmer, an expert on the moth family Gelechiidae, who runs the ‘Gelechid Recording Scheme’) - although, given the significance of the record, additional confirmation is being sought from a Scandinavian expert. Jim Wheeler, Norfolk county moth recorder, who runs the Norfolk Moths website, commented on X that it was the “moth of the year”.

Caterpillars of the Norfolk Snout feed on Hoary Mullein, a tall, yellow-flowered plant known mostly from East Anglia that is particularly abundant south and west of Norwich – including near the Jones’ home. The likelihood is thus that the individual moth caught is part of a wider population in the area. It is unclear whether the moth has been present all along, but unrecorded, or has recolonised. Either way it is great news!

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4 Sep 2024 Extinct no more!

A moth thought extinct in the UK, having not been seen since 1971, has been rediscovered in Norfolk – after 50 years’ absence. The UK's first Norfolk Snout (Nothris verbascella) was found near Norwich in 1853, and was subsequently recorded from Snettisham Carstone Quarry in the north-west of the county from 1967-71... but then vanished. It has never been found been found anywhere else in the UK and is formally recognised as extinct – with ‘adverse weather conditions’ being fingered as a possible cause of its demise.