Up in the old mountains of the southern Appalachian mountain range, scientists discovered a small, brown-and-white moth that has been fitting among the canes endlessly for tens of millions of years, far earlier than any human community that have settled on the elevation before the founding fathers sailed to America.
Retired biologist Dr. J. Bolling Sullivan III formerly of the Duke University Marine Lab in North Carolina and his partner Dr. Eric Quinter, an entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City named the new species Cherokeea attakullakulla, in honor of the Cherokee people who first inhabited what is now known as North Carolina and Tennessee and one of their leaders Chief Attakullakulla, who was one of the six ambassadors who travelled to London and other parts of America to represent his tribe in various treaties and negotiations. The discovery was published as a paper in the journal ZooKeys.
"It's unusual to find a new species of animal, even a moth, in today's world," said Bill John Baker, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation. "As a tribe, the Cherokee people were always deeply connected to nature and the environment in our original homelands in the East and having a new species named in honor of the Cherokee Nation is something I don't think has ever happened before, but we are honored just the same. In scientific and academic circles, the naming of a new discovery is deeply meaningful and symbolic."
The Cherokeea attakullakulla was first observed possibly in 1958 by Dr. John G. Frenclemont, a Cornell University professor who was examining various insects he collected at Macon County's Highlands Biological Station in North Carolina. Frenclemont noticed at least one or two specimens he didn't recognize. It was only four decades after that Dr. Sullivan came face-to-face with the very same brown moths thriving in the misty ridges on the west of North Carolina during a trip to conduct biological inventories.
Dr. Sullivan enlisted the help of Dr. Quinter, who has conducted in-depth studies on canebrakes, a unique habitat common to the area characterized by a dense growth of canes. Dr. Quinter is known for discovering more than 20 species of insects living in canebrakes, particularly moths and butterflies whose caterpillars exclusively fed on the bamboo trees found in the habitat.
It is unclear if the Cherokeea attakullakulla will be declared an endangered specie, but Dr. Sullivan says much of the moth's natural home remains preserved as part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
