Identification

Unmistakable.

Recording method

Flies from dusk and comes to light.

Life cycle

Two overlapping generations. Overwinters as a cocooned fully-grown larva. Larvae are present during June to July, and again September to April.

Larval foodplants

Bedstraws.

Habitat

Woodland, sand-dunes, grassland, heathland and gardens.

History

First recorded for Dumfries and Galloway in 1862 for VC72 near Dumfries by Lennon, in 1898 at Corsemalzie by Gordon who found it ‘common and generally distributed in gardens and on moors among bracken, etc.’ and in 1942 near Gatehouse of Fleet by Russell.