Red List: Least Concern (LC). GB Status: Nationally Scarce A (Na).

Identification

Usually distinctive.

Photo required for record acceptance due to rarity status.

Recording method

Can be disturbed by day from heather. Attracted to light.

Life cycle

One generation.  Overwinters as a larva on the foodplant. Larvae September to June. Pupates in a cocoon close to the ground.

Larval foodplants

Heather and Common Bird’s-foot trefoil.

Habitat

Heather heathland and moorland.

History

First recorded for Dumfries and Galloway in 1858 for VC72 near Moffat by Somerville who saw ‘one flying over ferns in heathy places’ and in 1862 for VC73 at Terregles by Lennon who recorded it as ‘very rare’.   Since then there has been one record in 1942 from Gatehouse of Fleet by Russell and one in 2012 near Drummore (VC74) in a light trap.