You can be be living in a country for decades, and then one day you find out: a chunky moth that looks just like a wasp lives there too.
This stripy specimen was discovered in a nature reserve in Cambridgeshire this summer.
The six-belted clearwing, to use its proper name, can grow up to 2.5cm, has a bold yellow and black abdomen, and would probably put you off your picnic.
‘It does look a bit out of place in the UK,’ Ajay Tegala, a ranger at Wicken Fen, told Metro, after we said it looks more like something you’d see in the Amazon rainforest.
He and others at the National Trust’s oldest reserve were especially excited by the discovery because it marked the ten thousandth species seen there.
Wicken Fen is the place with the most recorded species in the UK, and they’re not slowing down on the biodiversity count.
The total has now gone even higher, hitting 10,107, helped by a ‘bioscan’ project to examine eDNA of species like that left behind from urine or skin cells.
Mr Tegala told Metro that the wasp-moth evolved to look like a predator so that real predators avoid it, even though it can’t really sting. It even imitate flight patterns like hovering, and can making a buzzing sound by beating its wings at a high frequency. Its wings, as you might guess from its name, are clear, so that the waspy body is more prominent.
While this particular species is scarce, other moths in disguise like this are actually widespread across the UK.
The hornet clearwing, a related species, is ‘much more common’, Mr Tegala said.
But ‘they’re not often seen, or maybe sometimes they’re even dismissed as being a wasp, although they do look a bit fatter and a bit different’.
Only one six-belted clearwing has been spotted at the fenland so far, so time will tell if they discover a population there, or just one which had migrated.
You won’t see any until next year, as these moths have their flight period in the summer months.
Mr Tegala pointed out that while over 10,000 species have been recorded since the reserve opened in 1899, some of them may no longer live there, as the ecosystem changed over the years, such as the swallow tail butterfly. So in reality, the number still living there might be more like 9,000.
‘The amazing thing about Wicken is we’ve got the data to say we’ve had these species,’ he said.
Alan Kell, countryside manager at the National Trust said: ‘Reaching 10,000 recorded species is a proud achievement for everyone who has ever taken an interest in this special corner of the country.
‘I never fail to be surprised by what we find here, and it is absolutely a case in point that if you give nature the opportunity and the space, it will do remarkable things.’
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