Rare moth found in Cambridgeshire orchard threatened by busway plan

Appearance of dark crimson underwing causes excitement on land that would be bisected by road scheme

Beneath oak canopies, in an orchard full of hundred-year-old apple trees, excited exclamations rose from a group of moth enthusiasts last week.

The Cambridgeshire Moth Group had just trapped a dark crimson underwing, a species so rare that none of them had ever seen it before. Indeed, the colourful invertebrate is only usually ever found in the New Forest and is considered nationally scarce.