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A newly rediscovered moth species in Florida might already be in peril

Source link : https://bq3anews.com/a-newly-rediscovered-moth-species-in-florida-might-already-be-in-peril/

To the untrained eye, the Florida scrub ecosystem isn’t a lot to have a look at. Scattered in patches round coastal and inland Florida, the scrub panorama is ruled by means of shrubs and quick oaks, all rising out of sandy soil.

“Scrub” is actually an apt identify for it.

However this habitat is house to quite a few distinctive plant and animal species, together with the threatened Florida scrub-jay, the one chook discovered best in Florida.

The record of specialised scrub animals grew longer this spring once I formally named – and located within the wild – a species of moth distinctive to the Florida scrub.

I’m an evolutionary biologist and entomologist, serving as curator of entomology on the College of Colorado Boulder Museum of Herbal Historical past. In March 2026 I, at the side of my collaborators, Scott Wehrly and Jeff Slotten, revealed a piece of writing in ZooKeys describing this new moth from the Florida scrub.

I colloquially consult with it because the “Florida sack-bearer,” however it’s officially referred to as Cicinnus albarenicolus, Latin for “white sand dweller.” The identify “sack-bearer” signifies that it belongs to a small circle of relatives of moths referred to as Mimallonidae whose caterpillars make sacklike circumstances that they haul round, roughly like the way in which a hermit crab carries round a shell. There are simply over 300 sack-bearer species, with best six, together with our new one, identified from North The…

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Author : bq3anews

Publish date : 2026-05-24 04:45:00

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