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A moth enthusiast close to me, rediscovered a moth thought to be extinct in his back garden a few weeks ago.
The Norfolk snout was always a rare moth in Britain. By the late 1960s, populations of this small beige moth with its distinctive protuberant “nose” had dwindled to just one site – a working quarry in north-west Norfolk.
Bad weather or possibly overcollection by a few zealots meant that the moth, which has a 20mm wingspan, became extinct in Britain in 1971.
Now, after an absence of more than 50 years, the Norfolk snout (Nothris verbascella) has reappeared, close to where it was first discovered in 1853.
One of the moths was caught this week in a humane moth trap set in the garden of Dave and Pauline Jones in Stoke Holy Cross, four miles south of Norwich.
The moth expert James Lowen, the author of Much Ado about Mothing, said it could have survived undetected for years.
“It’s really exciting,” said Lowen of its reappearance. “My hunch is that it has been here undetected. It tends to stick around its food plant, hoary mullein, which is seen by roadsides south of Norwich, and it doesn’t wander far. It’s a small brown moth and many people don’t look at small brown moths. Dave and Pauline Jones deserve lots of credit for looking at it critically.
“When things are going extinct everywhere and you find something that isn’t going extinct after all, it’s great. It gives a bit of hope for the future that this little thing has clung on and we’re not clever enough to have found it until now.”
