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Lena Schmitt with one of the blacklight traps used to sample the moth community of Spilde Woods, one of the Luther College oak-hickory forests monitored in this study. (Courtesy of Luther College)
APPLE VALLEY, MN A study conducted by a 2020 Luther College graduate originally from Apple Valley has uncovered seven new species of moths never before found in Iowa, the college said.
Lena Schmitt worked with biology professor Kirk Larsen and collected over 12,000 moths from the forests and prairies surrounding Luther and found 99 species that had never been documented in Winneshiek County and seven that had never been seen in Iowa, the college said.