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Inverness teenager who found UK-first rare moth eggs shortlisted for national award





An Inverness teenager who became the first person to find the eggs of a mysterious moth in the UK has been nominated for a national award.

Holly Doherty (18) from Inverness.
Holly Doherty (18) from Inverness.

Holly Doherty (18) discovered the eggs of the elusive Silver Shade at the remote Glen Tilt near PBlair Athollsitlochry - 150 years after the adults were first seen there.

Holly, who has also been praised for her 'amazing' butterfly-themed painting and ceramics, volunteers with the Highland Branch of national charity Butterfly Conservation.

She was nominated in the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) Awards by the charity’s Scotland Head of Conservation Dr Tom Prescott.

Holly Doherty (18) from Inverness.
Holly Doherty (18) from Inverness.

He said: "Holly is a fantastic field recorder with very sharp eyes and incredible amounts of patience - she can spend hours in the field looking for the early stages of some of our scarcer species.

Holly Doherty is the Highland Branch's youngest volunteer.
Holly Doherty is the Highland Branch's youngest volunteer.

"She is a regular at volunteer work parties where she is happy to get wet and muddy, often in poor winter weather in the Highlands - rain, snow and ice - to actually make a difference for the species she cares so much about.

"At all these events Holly is by far the youngest attendee, often by a factor of three - despite this she is still happy to come along and share her knowledge and soak up new information."

Holly started volunteering with Butterfly Conservation's Highland Branch when she was 16 and regularly joins expeditions to find rare species that involve dawn starts, late finishes and camping overnight on remote glens.

Volunteering on field for Holly Doherty.
Volunteering on field for Holly Doherty.

The NBN Awards celebrate achievements across the UK in recording wildlife, and Tom said Holly had diligently attended training sessions, joined the annual Scottish Entomological Gathering and used moth traps in her own garden to record local species.

However, he added that Holly’s 'claim to fame' was finding the never-before-seen UK egg batch of the Silver Shade Eana argentana.

A Silver Shade moth. Picture: Ilia Ustyantsev.
A Silver Shade moth. Picture: Ilia Ustyantsev.

The Silver Shade is a delicate white moth with a silvery sheen. It is found across continental Europe and in North America, but the only site it has ever been recorded in the UK is at Glen Tilt. It was first seen there in 1875, but in nearly 150 years, no one had ever seen its eggs or caterpillars.

Holly found the tiny clutch of brown eggs, each just a few millimetres across, as part of a Butterfly Conservation survey day in July 2023. Butterfly Conservation says she is probably the first person in Europe and possibly in the world to ever find the miniscule eggs.

She said: "We had an idea of what we were looking for, but only a guess of what plants it might have been laid on, or even where it would be on the leaf which didn't instil much hope that we would be successful. When I turned the leaf and saw it I couldn't believe my eyes. I was absolutely thrilled and could not stop smiling. I was in total shock we had found it and I think everyone else was, too - especially after already spending a couple rainy days prior without any luck.

"I'm extremely passionate about nature, but particularly entomology. Being out recording brings me the greatest amount of pleasure and I am fascinated with how I am still learning more about insects each time I go surveying and trapping. This motivates me to better my understanding of, and nurture an interest in others, of nature and entomology to help conserve them for future generations."

Having made the stunning discovery, Holly has now set her sights on another first - finding the Silver Shade caterpillars when they emerge from hibernation in the spring.

Holly Doherty's artwork.
Holly Doherty's artwork.

The NBN Awards winners will be announced at the organisation's annual conference on Thursday, 21 November.


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