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A new species of moth with brilliantly-colored pink wings has been discovered at 7,700 feet in the Chiricahua Mountains of southern Arizona.
“This large moth flew in and we didn’t think much of it because there is a silk moth very much like it, a Doris silk moth that feeds on pines that has dark wings with pink on the hind wings. It’s fairly common there,” said University of Arizona biologist, Bruce Walsh, who discovered the species.
On closer inspection of the moth, however, Walsh determined that it was an entirely different species from a different family: Noctuidae. The Chiricahuas is known for its biological richness and new species, however a moth of this color is a rare find.
 The bright pink lithophane leeae. Photo by Bruce Walsh. |
The moth has been named lithophane leeae, after Walsh’s wife, Lee.
“We can now add L. leeae to this group of large, but quite elusive, species,” Walsh noted.
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