Red List: Least Concern (LC). GB Status: Common.

Identification

Usually distinctive. Care required, potential confusion with Spinach.

Recording method

Flies from dusk. Attracted to light.

Life cycle

One generation. Overwinters as an egg. Larvae April to June. Pupates among plant debris.

Larval foodplants

Cleavers and other bedstraws.

Habitat

A wide range of habitats including gardens, farmland, grassland and open woodland.

History

First recorded for Dumfries and Galloway for VC72 at Raehills, St’Ann’s by Little, in 1870 for VC73 in Colvend parish by White and in 1912 for VC74 at Polbae by Gordon who noted that it ‘occurs not uncommonly in the north of the county’.