Chequered bar facts for kids

The Barea asbolaea is a small moth with a cool name! It's also known as the chequered bar or the Buryas Bridge moth. This interesting insect belongs to a group of moths called Oecophoridae. You can usually find it in Australia.

An English scientist named Edward Meyrick first officially described this moth in 1883. What's really neat is that even though it's from Australia, it has also been found in Cornwall, a county in England. It's considered an introduced species there, meaning it wasn't originally from that area. Scientists have seen it in Cornwall since 2004 at a few different places.

Life of the Barea asbolaea Moth

The Barea asbolaea moth has an interesting life cycle, just like other moths.

Male Moths and Their Look

The male Barea asbolaea moth looks a lot like another type of moth called Depressaria. This can make it tricky for scientists to tell them apart! So far, scientists in Cornwall have mostly seen male moths. They haven't recorded any female Barea asbolaea moths there yet.

What Do Moth Larvae Eat?

Most moths in the Oecophoridae family, which Barea asbolaea belongs to, have larvae (which are like caterpillars) that eat decaying plants. They also like to munch on the fungi that grow on these old plants. This helps them get the nutrients they need to grow.

When Can You See Them?

In Cornwall, people have seen these moths flying around between April and September. This is usually when the weather is warmer and there's plenty of food for them.

Where Does This Moth Live?

The Barea asbolaea moth is originally from Australia. This means it is endemic to Australia, which means it naturally lives only in that part of the world. It has been found in places like Tasmania and Western Australia.

Discovery in Great Britain

It's a bit of a mystery how this Australian moth ended up in Great Britain! The first time it was found there was in 2004. It was caught in a moth trap near a place called Buryas Bridge in west Cornwall. However, scientists didn't realize what it was until 2010.

At first, they thought it was one of the common Depressaria moths. But in 2010, some pictures of the moth and its tiny body parts were sent to experts. These experts were at the Natural History Museum in London and the Australian National Insect Collection. They confirmed that it was indeed the Barea asbolaea! Since then, more of these moths have been found near Crows-an-Wra, which is about 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Buryas Bridge.

How Did It Get to Cornwall?

Scientists believe the moths probably came from Trewidden Gardens. This garden is very close, only about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) away from where the moths were first found. Trewidden Gardens has been growing exotic plants (plants from other countries) since the 1860s.

One of the most common plants brought from Tasmania was the Soft tree fern (Dicksonia antarctica). These tree ferns have rough, hairy trunks. It's very possible that tiny moth eggs, larvae, or pupae (the stage before they become adult moths) could have hidden in these trunks during the two-month journey from Australia to Cornwall. To test this idea, the Cornwall Moth Group held an overnight trapping session at Trewidden Gardens. They were excited to find seven B. asbolaea moths there! This suggests the garden might be where these Australian moths first settled in England.