Conservationist finds hidden population of one of England's rarest moths

Great news for those of you that love insects - a hidden population of one of England's rarest moths has been found.

Dr Dave Wainwright, who is part of the wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation, made the discovery at a site where the species hasn't been found for 70 years.

He tracked down the dark bordered beauty moth at the National Trust's Wallington Estate in Northumberland.

He said making the discovery was "one of the highlights" of his career after spending his life searching for the rare moth!

The dark bordered beauty moth could once be found across northern England and Scotland, but habitat loss has resulted in them only being found in two areas on Deeside and Speyside in Scotland and now two sites in England.

For decades the only place that the custard and chocolate coloured moth could be found in England was at Strensall Common in North Yorkshire.

But the wildlife charity says numbers there have been declining rapidly due to climate change, from hundreds of moths at the site 20 years ago to barely reaching double figures last year.

A challenge for conservationists is that the caterpillars of the moths only eat two plants, aspen and creeping willow.

Dr Dave Wainwright has been searching for new populations of the moth since he started working with the charity in 2004, including in his own time!

He visited the Wallington Estate in 2004, where they had been previously spotted back in 1952, but he didn't manage to find any.

But he returned recently, after the habitat had been transformed by the National Trust, using nature-friendly farming, reducing grazing and restoring peatland.

He said it looked so much better with "really lush vegetation with lots of wildflowers" and it took just 10 minutes for them to find one of the moths, then "we all started picking them up quite regularly".

The team that worked on the recovery of Wallington Estate is hoping to expand the potential habitat of the rare moth and Butterfly Conservation is working with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to manage the habitat at Strensall Common.