The moth man

New Zealand has a phoenix - although it’s not the brilliant fiery bird most imagine.
It’s a moth - called the frosted phoenix - or Titanomis sisyrota - and it was only photographed for the first time last year by a living person.
Called New Zealand’s most enigmatic moth, only 10 specimens have ever been collected and none since 1959. It is considered a large moth (although not as big as our largest, the pūriri moth with it’s bright green wings.)
It was first described by entomologist Edward Meyrick in 1888. It was large, with white edges to its wings - possibly indicating it liked forest habitats where it could hide against mottled bark.
While it was originally found all over New Zealand, the last time it was collected was in the Waikato in 1959.
Until last year a Swedish tourist saw one on Stewart Island. A bird watching group had sent up a UV light before going kiwi watching. When they came back one noticed the large moth beneath one of the seats and snapped a picture of it. Once home he uploaded the picture to a website where it was identified as the frosted phoenix - seen for the first time in 65 years.
Mayrick was born on November 25, 1854, in Ramsbury, Wiltshire and educated at Trinity College in Cambridge and spent all his spare time hunting moths, although he never saw the frosted phoenix alive himself since he never came to New Zealand.
He published papers and ended up getting a post at The King’s School in Parramatta, New South Wales in 1877.
He stayed in Australia until 1886 before returning to England to teach at Marlborough College.
He was the author of the Handbook of British Lepidoptera (1895) and of Exotic Microlepidoptera (March 1912 – November 1937), the latter consisting of four complete volumes and part of a fifth.
He was a fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London and a fellow of the Royal Society.
Meyrick became the man who described more than 20,000 species of lepidoptera - butterflies and moths. His own collection of over 100,000 specimens is at the Natural History Museum in London and is believed to have collected more than anyone else.
Meyrick had received the specimen of the frosted phoenix but initially thought it had been caught in Nelson when in fact it had been caught in Wellington.
Meyrick died after a brief illness on 31 March 31, 1938, in Marlborough, Wiltshire, and is buried in the churchyard at Ramsbury, Wiltshire.​