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

Identification

Usually distinctive.

Recording method

Flies by day, usually in sunshine but male may fly in dull weather.

Life cycle

One generation. Overwinters as an egg. Larvae  April to early June. Pupates just below ground.

Larval foodplants

The flowers and seeds of Pignut.

Habitat

Meadows, especially neutral grassland where Pignut is common.

History

First recorded for Dumfries and Galloway in 1820 for VC72 at Raehills by Little, in 1862 for VC73 at Glen Mills by Lennon and in 1899 for VC74 near Monreith by Morton who later stated that it ‘was widely distributed and locally abundant in meadows and among bracken on the moors during June’.