BOULDER, Colo. — A moth species native to Florida that was believed to be extinct for decades has been rediscovered by a University of Colorado Boulder researcher.
Ryan St Laurent, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at CU Boulder and curator of entomology at the CU Museum of Natural History, spotted multiple live specimens of the Cicinnus albarenicolus moth during nighttime fieldwork in central Florida’s scrub habitat, which is a rare, white-sand ecosystem with open canopies and low-growing vegetation, a press release from the university said.
Until late 2025, the species was only known from decades-old museum specimens and hadn’t been observed in the wild since the 1960s, CU Boulder said…