Ryan St Laurent spotted multiple live specimens of the Cicinnus albarenicolus moth during nighttime fieldwork in central Florida’s scrub habitat.
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.
St Laurent told 9NEWS he has been studying this particular species of moth for more than 13 years.
“This was a species I had only ever seen pinned in museum drawers,” St Laurent said. “Seeing it alive in its natural habitat, after thinking it may already be gone, was extraordinary.”
He recently published the scientific description of C. albarenicolus after identifying it as a new species through DNA barcoding of preserved specimens, the press release says. But based on the lack of recent sightings and the moth’s extremely limited range, he initially thought it might be extinct. However, that changed after learning that a collector had found a specimen in a Florida scrub habitat last fall, which prompted St Laurent to travel there to search for additional populations of the moth.
Over two nights of surveys this month and using specialized light traps in the scrub ecosystems near Cassia and Seminole State Forest, St Laurent encountered three live female moths shortly after sunset, CU Boudler said. This confirmed that the species is still in the wild.
“We had a had a decade of knowing about the species and knowing probably where it was found, but this idea that maybe it was extinct, and then in a very short period of time, someone rediscovered it, described it as a new species, and then found it, I found it myself in a new spot, all in the matter of a, you know, a handful of months. So it’s just kind of funny to see this come from full circle, but all at once,” St Laurent said.
The moth belongs to the Mimallonidae family, which is an ancient lineage of moths more than 100 million years old that is largely found in Central and South America, the university said. Only a handful of species occur in North America, and C. albarenicolus is the only member of the family known to be endemic to the United States, CU Boulder said.
The moth appears to be restricted to small, isolated pockets of Florida scrub, a habitat that scientists estimate about only 10% of the state’s original acreage remains.
“Florida scrub is one of the most threatened habitats in the country,” St Laurent said. “We don’t yet know what this moth’s caterpillars feed on, how long it lives, or how sensitive it is to habitat disturbance.”
After finding the moth, St Laurent transported live females to collaborators at the University of Florida in Gainesville to attempt rearing offspring, which could provide crucial insight into the moth’s life cycle and conservation needs, CU Boulder said.
“This moth is part of Florida’s natural heritage,” he said. “It exists nowhere else on Earth. Rediscovering it alive gives us a chance to protect it – if we act on that knowledge.”
St Laurent said he hopes to get back to Florida soon to study the moth further.