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

Identification

Usually distinctive.

Recording Method.

Attracted to light, also attracted to sugar.

Life cycle

One generation. Overwinters as a larva.Larvae July to April. Pupates underground.

Larval foodplants

A wide range of herbaceous and woody plants including Blackthorn, cleavers, sallows, Apple and buddleias.

Habitat

Damp woodland, marshes, gardens and weedy hedgerows.

History

Gordon (1913) had found it common at sugar some years at Corsemalzie, Wigtownshire. Earliest date was 1st July 1905. Since then, Cunningham had found it on Tinwald Downs during 1951, and R. M. Palmer recorded it from Moffat in 1970, with another at Stranraer in 1975.

During 1976-87 there were only ten records from four of the Rothamsted stations, Gatehouse of Fleet, Bridge of Dee and Mabie Forest (VC73) and Waterside Mains at Keir (VC72). However, from 1992 to 2010 there had been eighty records from widespread sites across VCs 72 and 73, though only Newton Stewart and Torrs Warren had produced records for Wigtownshire.