The new species of geometrid lepidoptera discovered by Ms Izabela Stachowicz (JU alumni) belongs to the genus Erateina. It is the first species of this genus found in the vast Guiana Shield,  mountainous region of south-eastern Venezuela and northern Brazil, also called the Pantepui by the biogeographers.

Its unique landscape is made of steep and high Precambrian sandstone table mountains dating back to the time of Gondwana, and surrounded by thick, nearly impenetrable cloud forests. This area has one of the highest ratio of endemic species of animals in the world. The new species is also the first specimen of insect ever collected in the Tramen Tepui (2760 m) massif.

 

The Zoological Museum of the Jagiellonian University has been contributing to the research of world butterflies for many years. As a result, our entomologists have discovered and described over 300 new species of butterflies (more than the number of butterfly species in Poland) and over 200 species of moths. The majority of new species described come from the Andes. Among the most interesting discoveries is the first known brachypterous, flightless, butterfly in the world, the female of Redonda empetrus, and Jagiello molinopampa, a blue butterfly, whose genus is called in honour of the Jagiellonian University.
 
 

In 2010 the Zoological Museum of the Jagiellonian University has issued a calendar presenting some of the discovered butterflies.The unique specimen of the new geometrid moth is being currently studied at the Zoological Museum of the Jagiellonian University.