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

Identification

Usually distinctive.

Recording Method.

Flies from dusk. Attracted to light, sometimes in numbers.

Life cycle

One generation. Overwinters twice as a larva. Larvae September to May/June. Pupates underground.

Larval foodplants

The roots of many herbaceous plants, including Broad-leaved Dock, Dandelion, Bracken and probably grasses.

Habitat

Downland, moorland, gardens, woodland rides, roadside verges and other rough grassy areas.

History 1860-2010

William Lennon (1863) in his ‘List of Lepidoptera taken near Dumfries’ first recorded it in the Terregles Meadows, but it was not common. W. Douglas Robinson (1870-71) had found it not very common during July on Almorness (VC73). Gordon (1913) found it on the roadsides among long grass near Corsemalzie, Wigtownshire, 18th July 1906, which is a typical habitat.

During 1975-93 there were twenty records from the Rothamsted stations. Then from 1992 to 2010, the regularly trapped sites at Kirkton and Durisdeer provided 75% per cent of the one hundred records during this period, the rest from widespread sites across the region.