Red List: Near Threatened (NT). GB Status: Common.

Identification

Usually distinctive.

Recording Method.

Attracted to light.

Life cycle

One generation. Overwinters as an adult (female only). Eggs laid on the foodplant. Larvae April to July. Pupates underground.

Larval foodplants

Hogweed and Wild Angelica.

Habitat

Upland grassland, moorland, marshes and coasts.

History

First recorded by Jackson (1910) who received a specimen from Henderson, keeper of Mull of Galloway Lighthouse (Wigtownshire) of one taken on the lantern in 1909.

Duncan and Cunningham (1952) recorded the first for Dumfriesshire when one was caught on 8th October 1951 at Tynron. A day earlier but in 1999 the first for Kirkcudbrightshire (VC73) was caught at Carsfad. Another was caught on the 19th September 2003 on Corserig Hill, Dumfriesshire, and one at Kirriereoch on 30th March 2009 was photographed. Presumably it was an overwintering female!