Climate change drawing new moths to the UK

Moths are taking advantage of climate change with more species than ever before arriving in UK, experts have said. Almost 30 new species of pyralid moths have been recorded in the UK in the past 30 years, the wildlife publisher Atropos and the Butterfly Conservation charity said.

Pyralid moths includes some of the largest and most distinctive of 1,600 so-called micro-moths found in the UK. While the seas around the British Isles provide a natural barrier to many colonising species, the horticultural trade can provide a route in, with moth eggs, caterpillars and pupae hitching a ride on imported plants.