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

Identification

Usually distinctive.

Recording method

Flies from dusk, attracted to light.

Life cycle

One generation. Overwinters as an egg,  in the fork of a twig of the foodplant. Larvae late April to early June. Pupates in a cocoon on the foodplant.

Larval foodplants

Mainly Alder and Blackthorn but also  birches, Hawthorn and fruit trees.

Habitat

Damp woodland adjacent to ponds, hedgerows, orchards and Alder stands beside rivers.

History

First recorded for Dumfries and Galloway in VC72 in 1820 at Raehills, St. Ann’s by Little, for VC73 in 1862 at Mabie Forest by Lennon and for VC74 in 1899 at Corsemalzie by Gordon.