In addition to listening to us on RTÉ Radio One at 22:00 every Monday night, don't forget that you can also listen back to each of our programmes any time you like at www.rte.ie/mooney. There, you will find an extensive archive of past broadcasts, conveniently split into different topics and segments.

Tonight’s programme is a repeat of Eric Dempsey’s fantastic Nature on One documentary all about his quest to track down one of Ireland’s rarest insects, the White Prominent moth.

With that in mind, and to help you to get to know a bit more about this often-overlooked group of mainly nocturnal insects, our suggestion from the Mooney Goes Wild archives this week is an interview with moth expert Marc Holderied, Professor of Sensory Biology at the University of Bristol.

First broadcast in September of this year, in this segment Marc explains some of the cutting-edge discoveries being made about moths, and in particular the fascinating strategies and tricks that some species use to avoid being eaten by bats.

To listen to this segment from the Mooney Goes Wild archives, visit https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22433765/

The Extraordinary Tale of the White Prominent: a Nature on One documentary, presented by Eric Dempsey

Last month, as part of our Nature on One series we brought you a very special documentary, presented by author and naturalist Eric Dempsey. Broadcast on October Bank Holiday Monday and called The Extraordinary Tale of the White Prominent, it followed Eric’s quest to track down one of Ireland’s rarest insects, a moth which, until recently, was thought to have disappeared forever. In 2008, however, the long-lost White Prominent moth was sensationally rediscovered in one small area of Co. Kerry, where it had somehow managed to cling on, unseen and unknown, over the course of seven decades.

Tonight on Mooney Goes Wild, we give you another chance to listen to this fantastic documentary and to learn all about the vanishing act performed by one of Ireland’s most beautiful but least understood insects.

For more information about the White Prominent moth in Ireland, visit https://www.mothsireland.com/gallery3/index.php/Notodontidae/Notodontinae/71-019-White-Prominent-Leucodonta-bicoloria

For more information about our Nature on One series of documentaries, visit https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/mooney/generic/2023/0313/1362023-nature-on-one/