WWBIC Spring Newsletter 2025 Bulletin 43

How much of South Wales has Pachyrhabda steropodes?
Ian Morgan

In May 2006 Jon Baker caught a micro moth at Aberglasney Gardens near Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire that he could not identify. It was sent off to ascertain its identity but agreement was not reached until some more were also found (in 2010) at Abbotsbury Gardens in Dorset. It was determined as the Australasian species Pachyrhabda steropodes , which was new to the British Isles. In April 2014 Chris Manley visited Aberglasney and found individuals associated with some planted ferns; a photo of one is included in his well-known excellent photographic guides to moths. The species is believed to have been an accidental introduction to both locations by means of imported exotic ferns. Given its native range (the major island of Tasmania off the south Australian coast) and its food plants, it perhaps could be dubbed the `Tasmanian fern-moth` should a vernacular name be desired.
Then in May 2017, Vaughn Matthews spotted one at Dinefwr Castle Woods, a Wildlife Trust reserve on the outskirts of Llandeilo and, soon afterwards, also along a path at the southern edge of that town. This suggested that the moth was spreading. I then personally began to take an interest in this species and subsequently found it at several sites in the mid-Tywi valley and elsewhere. Read more