A VERY rare moth which has only been seen in East Lancashire five times in 173 years has been spotted by a seven-year-old boy.
A death's-head hawkmoth, which was made famous in the film Silence of the Lambs, is usually found across tropical Africa, but was photographed resting on a garden wall in Blackburn with its skull-like marking.
The bat-size moth has a wingspan of up to 5.11inches, flies up to 30mph, squeaks like a mouse, can hover like a hummingbird and even attacks the hives of honey bees.
There have only been five recorded sightings in East Lancashire since 1842 - the last being an adult in Longridge in September 2007.
Colleen Pugh's seven-year-old nephew Harry Birchall found the moth in the Queen's Park area of Blackburn.
She said: "Harry was playing in the garden and came running in very excited. He wasn't sure what it was; he thought it was a mini beast then we noticed the unusual markings on its head.
"We looked it up on the internet and found out what it was. Harry is very keen on insects. We haven't seen a moth like that before."
Graham Dixon, the record keeper for the Lancashire Moths website on behalf of the county recorders, has only seen one - and that ended in tragedy.
He said: "It's a sore point with me. I have only seen one once and that was in 1996 in Scarborough.
"We were on the last cliff lift of the day and it flew into the carriage.
"I said what it was and then this lady splattered it with her handbag and that's my only experience of one."
The Butterfly Conservation group says it is only normally seen in the autumn, adding: "The deaths-head is rare; only a handful make it over from the Continent each autumn. Its real home is in the warmth of southern Europe, Africa and the Middle East."
And Peter Marsh, of Lancashire Moths, an informal group of amateur recorders, added: "It is very unusual in Lancashire."
One was also recorded in Kent yesterday and the @MigrantMothUK Twitter sit described pre-July sightings as: "As rare as hen's teeth."
Meanwhile, the skies over East Lancashire could soon be filled with something slightly more attractive.
Millions of painted lady butterflies could be heading to Britain in a once-in-a-decade mass migration from southern Europe.
PANEL
It's no surprise that the death's-head hawkmoth has instilled fear for centuries as a bad omen - it features in Bram Stokers Dracula, Thomas Hardy wrote about them in The Return of the Native, John Keats mentioned them in his poem Ode to Melancholy and in Thomas Harriss book Silence of the Lambs the killer places the pupae in his victims throats.
Even its caterpillars are frightening - they have tail horns and bite attackers with their mandibles.
Entomologist Moses Harris wrote in 1840: "It is regarded not as the device of evil spirits - spirits enemies to man - conceived and fabricated in the dark, and the very shining of its eyes is thought to represent the fiery element whence it is supposed to have proceeded.
"Flying into their apartments in the evening at times it extinguishes the light; foretelling war, pestilence, hunger, death to man and beast."
