Entomologist from Toraighyrov University Sergey Titov and his colleagues managed to make another discovery during the summer research of lepidopterous insects (moths), the press service of the university reported.

On the edge of the Karaganda steppe, we managed to meet Catocala helena, a species of moth new to the fauna of Kazakhstan.

 - The new species was first discovered in Karaganda with the support of colleagues from ABK (Association of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan) Genrietta Pulikova and Alena Kaptenkina from the Institute of Zoology of the Republic of Kazakhstan and later in Pavlodar.
This species is migratory, invasive, prefers to populate  urban habitat.  In recent years, Russian entomologists have often discussed Catocala helena.  Until recently, this did not concern us.
Recently, Russian entomologists published a number of papers reporting new finds of Catocala helena far from the main range and that the species migrates from east to west, actively occupying new territories for itself.  Initially, Catocala helena lived only in the broad-leaved forests of the Far East of Russia, Korea, China and Mongolia.  In recent years, they began to celebrate it in Transbaikal, in Western Siberia, and, bypassing Kazakhstan, Catocala helena  was found to be in the Southern Urals and even in the European part of Russia, in the Volga region.
 Our study reports that the species did not bypass Kazakhstan, and we eventually managed to meet with the "secret migrant".
Why this species began its east-west migration is not exactly clear yet, but some invasive species are known to act as quarantine, causing damage and having a strong negative impact on the ecosystems they gradually inhabit.  Perhaps this species will manifest itself peacefully, because it inhabits free ecological niches in the urban environment.
We will follow the further presence of Catocala helena and its way of life both on the territory of our country and beyond its borders in order to find out what impact this invasive species may have on the nature of Kazakhstan in the future.