It’s pretty cool when a new insect species is discovered. It’s even more exciting when scientists find a new genus. But a new family? That’s pretty amazing and doesn’t happen very often.

But it did recently, on Kangaroo Island in South Australia. This is the first time since the 1970s that a new family of primitive moth has been identified anywhere in the world.

This new moth family is called Aenigmatineidae. It is only known to contain a single genus (Aenigmatinea) and a single species called Aenigmatinea glatzella. Details of the discovery were published in the journal Systematic Entomology.

The moth – also known as the enigma moth – is covered in scales that appear gold and purple, and the edges of their wings have feathery fringes.

Read more at:

– New ‘enigma’ moth helps crack evolution’s code

– A new extant family of primitive moths from Kangaroo Island, Australia, and its significance for understanding early Lepidoptera evolution