New alpine moth species discovery helps solve 180-year-old identification mystery

Scientists who discovered a new species of alpine moth have used their findings to crack a 180-year-old mystery around the identification of another species of the insect.

Two researchers from Switzerland and Austria, Jürg Schmid and Peter Huemer, made the discovery after first identifying the same moth species almost 30 years ago in the 1990s.

The two men found that while the insect bore similarities to a species commonly named Dichrorampha montanana, which has been known to scientists since 1843, it had clear differences which suggested a new species.

Extensive genetic investigations confirmed this hypothesis before further research led them to another finding - six older names for previously-discovered moths actually referred to just one species, now known as Dichrorampha alpestrana.

The researchers made this discovery by comparing their new species with descriptions of similar species to check that it had not already been named.

As butterflies and moths have been the subject of intensive research for 250 years, with as many as 5,000 species identified in the Alps alone, the discovery of a new species from the mountain range is a matter of major interest in the field.

The type of moth discovered by Mr Schmid and Mr Huemer was found to be new to science and therefore not yet named.

The researchers chose to name it Dichrorampha velata - meaning “veiled” or “hidden” in Latin - in relation to its unusual discovery.

In their research paper, published in the journal Alpine Entomology, the two men said that other scientists had previously noted the possibility of a new species in the Alps, but no-one had successfully solved the mystery.

“Several authors... were aware of there being a second species or at least a remarkable variation of D. alpestrana but all failed to disentangle the complex taxonomy and nomenclature,” they wrote in the paper.

Mr Schmid and Mr Huemer added that the newly-named species has a wingspan of up to 16mm and a distinctive olive-brown colour on its forewings with silvery lines.

The insect can be found in Austria, Switzerland and parts of the French and Italian Alps - although it is thought that the species could also be located across a wider range of central Europe.