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

Identification

Usually distinctive. Care required, potential confusion with Dusky Brocade and Pale-shouldered Brocade.

Recording Method.

Attracted to light, also comes to sugar and flowers.

Life cycle

One generation. Overwinters as a pupa. Larvae August to September. Pupates underground.

Larval foodplants

A number of herbaceous plants including Common Sea-lavender, Greater Plantain and goosefoots.

Habitat

A wide range of habitats, but particularly damp habitats such as saltmarsh, wet grassland and moorland.

History

Buchanan White of Perth (1895) listed it as occurring in Colvend and Southwick parishes (VC73). Additional to MOGBI. Sir Arthur Duncan (1909-84) during his lifetime had found it at Tynron (VC72).

During 1975-76 it was caught twelve times at the Rothamsted station at Caerlaverock. Further records came from this site during 1995-2004. From 1995 to 2010, Kirkton (VC72), Mersehead RSPB, Kirkcudbright and both sides of Auchencairn Bay produced most of the records, with a scattering of other records, of which three of them occurred in Wigtownshire at Forest Moor, Claymoddie and Moss of Cree.