Tachystola mulliganae (Photo by David Lees/Trustees of the Natural History Museum) from Ealing: New species of moth discovered in west London park – BBC News

Dear Readers, I sometimes dream of how exciting it would be to find a species new to science in my back garden, but this week there was news that lifelong moth enthusiast Barbara Mulligan had done just that. Mulligan had been fascinated by moths since she was ten years old, and had recently retired from her job as a housing finance officer when she found a moth in her moth trap (in Ealing, West London) that she didn’t recognise.

She sent the moth to her local moth recorder, who was also stumped, so the moth ended up at the Natural History Museum, where it was recognised as being similar to a specimen of an Australian moth that had been in the collection since 1885. Genetic tests proved that although the moth was similar to the one in the collection, it was distinct, and was, in fact, a moth new to science. It was named Tachystola mulliganae in Mulligan’s honour, and she couldn’t be more pleased.

Since then, she’s found 25 moths in several other locations in Ealing, but how it arrived in the UK is a mystery. It’s likely that the moth larvae or eggs were brought in with some plants from Australia, but it probably happened fairly recently as the moth is only known from a limited geographical range. Though the question is, would we know? There are not that many dedicated and regular observers of moths, though maybe the thought of finding a moth new to science could be an encouragement.

And let’s not forget the amazing Jennifer Owens, who monitored the wildlife in her suburban Leicestershire garden and discovered six species of parasitic wasp that were new to science, and 20 species of insect that hadn’t been reported in the UK before. Her book ‘Wildlife of a Garden – a Thirty-Year Study'(currently out of print)  is a fascinating insight into what can appear in a garden that wasn’t designed just for wildlife, but also for fruit, veg and flowers for the humans who enjoyed it. And who knows what’s going on even in a modest urban patch? Eyes peeled, people! You could be the next person to have a plant or critter named after you.