Moth enthusiast Richard Clements from Bridstow near Ross-on-Wye had a big surprise last week when he opened his moth trap to reveal a species never before seen in Herefordshire. The moth was a Beautiful Marbled, a species not native to Britain, whose home is in Southern Europe.

First recorded in 2004, there have only been a handful of sightings of the Beautiful Marbled in the UK. These sightings tend to be mainly along the coast, and this is the second inland record.

Richard’s interest in moths started as a child and he traps regularly as part of the Garden Moth Scheme; a national group of enthusiasts who, by trapping every week and recording the numbers of about 200 common species they see, are trying to collect data to enable long-term population trends to be seen.

Richard told the Ross Gazette: “Last Wednesday I had almost finished checking the trap and saw the moth on the one side. It was instantly obvious it was something different from the normal fare. I took a photo and sent it to Robin Hemming, West Midlands Butterfly Conservation’s Herefordshire Moth Officer to confirm the sighting.

“That something with a wingspan of about an inch can travel so far and it was in perfect shape, amazes me. There are quite a number of moth species that migrate and some of them are quite common, but few as striking as this one.

“It certainly gives the lie to the idea that butterflies are the pretty ones and moths are just boring little brown jobs.”

Robin told the Ross Gazette: “This is a fantastic find in what has been a generally poor summer for our declining moths and butterflies. It is not often that a moth entirely new to the county is discovered, and such a beautiful looking moth as well.

“The end of August and into September can often be a good time for migrant species and in recent days we have had a number of reports of moths like the Silver Y and Hummingbird Hawkmoth which fly over each year from the continent, together with Painted Lady butterflies which come from as far away as North Africa. The Beautiful Marbled, however, is something very special.”

The West Midlands Butterfly Conservation are keen for more people to take part in the scheme. If you are interested, details can be found at www.gardenmoths.org.

The charity is also keen to gather records of other migrant species and records of Painted Ladies and Hummingbird Hawkmoths can be reported online via the Migrant Watch hotline at butterfly-conservation.org