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

Identification

Usually distinctive. Care required, potential confusion with Northern Spinach.

Recording method

Male flies at dusk. Attracted to light.

Life cycle

One generation. Overwinters as an egg on the foodplant. Larvae May and June. Pupates between spun leaves on the foodplant.

Larval foodplants

Willows, Aspen and probably other woody plants.

Habitat

Mainly upland moorland and scrub but also in lowland heathland and woodland.

History

First recorded for Dumfries and Galloway in 1862 for VC72 at the Crichton Institution, Dumfries by Lennon who found it ‘common’,  1870 for VC73 at Colvend parish by Duncan and in 1898 for VC74 at Corsemalzie by Gordon.