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European Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) are generally considered well-known and thoroughly researched. Nevertheless, researchers discover new species every year; most of which are inconspicuous, so-called ‘cryptic’ species, previously overlooked.
Colourful species, on the other hand, have been largely catalogued in Europe as they attract a lot of attention, which made the surprise and delight at the discovery of an extraordinarily striking, and previously unnamed, moth all the greater.
A newly discovered, pink species has now been named Carcina ingridmariae by Peter Huemer, a scientist at the Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinanduem (Innsbruck, Austria). Huemer published his discovery in the open-access journal Alpine Entomology.
According to current knowledge, the moth is widespread in the eastern Mediterranean region: distributed from Croatia across large parts of Greece and Cyprus to Turkey. However, more detailed studies on its distribution are still pending.
Seemingly unmistakable
Ingrid-Maria’s carcina belongs to a species-poor group of butterflies. In Europe, there is only one other species of the same genus, the oak carcina (Carcina quercana).
This widespread moth was described as early as 1775 by the famous naturalist Johann Christian Fabricius based on specimens from Saxony, and is distributed from North Africa across large parts of Europe to the Balkans.
Due to its unusual colour, the species has always been considered unmistakable. In fact, it is so popular even among amateur researchers that it adorns the cover of an important British identification book.
But, hiding in plain sight, was a second species, mistaken for the oak carcina for more than 100 years.
As a result of its apparent unmistakability, Carcina ingridmariae was always misidentified and was first published – incorrectly – as the oak wood carcina from Crete in 1916.
It was only the introduction of new molecular identification methods that put researchers at the Ferdinandeum on the trail of the nameless moth. DNA barcodes, also known as genetic fingerprints, showed huge differences of more than 6% between the two species.
Subsequent morphological examination of the sexual organs led to the famous “wow” effect. And, upon closer inspection, the two species could not be confused at all, despite the confusingly similar external appearance of the species: namely, a wingspan of about 2 centimeters, a pink base colour with yellow spots, and strikingly long antennae.
A special gift for a 42nd wedding anniversary
Peter Huemer has described more than 200 species from Europe in 35 years, but is particularly enthusiastic about this new species. He said: “It is without doubt the prettiest species I have encountered in my long scientific career, even though it was still unnamed.”
It was therefore obvious to Huemer that he should dedicate the new species to his wife, Ingrid Maria, on their 42nd wedding anniversary. The researcher justifies this choice of name above all with his wife’s decades of support for his work.
Original source
Huemer P (2025) The supposedly unmistakable mistaken: Carcina ingridmariae sp. nov., a surprising example of overlooked diversity from Europe and the Near East (Lepidoptera, Peleopodidae). Alpine Entomology 9: 51-63. https://doi.org/10.3897/alpento.9.158239
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