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

Identification

Usually distinctive. Care required, potential confusion with Dark Chestnut.

Recording Method.

Attracted to light, also comes to sugar and flowers.

Life cycle

One generation. Overwinters as an adult. Larvae late April to June. Pupates in a cocoon underground.

Larval foodplants

A range of broadleaved trees including oaks, elms, Blackthorn, Hawthorn, birches as well as docks.

Habitat

Mainly broadleaved woodland but also hedgerows, scrub and gardens.

History

Lennon (1863) under Cerastis vaccinnii had stated it to be very common, then under Cerastis spadicea, a synonym, he had found it in the Crichton Institution Garden. Gordon (1913) found The Chestnut very abundant and generally distributed in Wigtownshire. It also came to sugar and appeared variable. Sir Arthur Duncan (1909-84) during his lifetime had found it at Closeburn, Tynron and Castlehill, Dumfries (all VC72).

During 1974-92 there were a lot of records from six of the seven Rothamsted stations, Caerlaverock not recording it. Then from 1992 to 2010 the vast majority of the records came from trapping at Kirkton and Durisdeer (VC72), Cally Woods and Mersehead RSPB (VC73), with scattered records from elsewhere in those two VCs. Just two sites in Wigtownshire during the same period produced a handful of records between them, Glenwhan Gardens at Dunragit and Forest Moor.