Identification

Usually distinctive.

Photo required for record acceptance due to rarity status

Life cycle

Two generations May  to November. Most that reach Britain are from the second generation, arriving from August onwards. Unable to overwinter in Britain.

Larval foodplants

Mainly Grape-vine and Virginia Creeper but also Bedstraws.

Habitat

Generally open areas particularly coastal.

History 1860-2010

Robert Service (1880) wrote: ‘On the 8th inst. (October) the gardener at Edenbank, near here, handed me a match-box, with the remark that it contained a big moth that he had taken out of a “speedurt’s waab.” Judge of my pleasurable surprise when I found it was a very fair specimen of C. celerio!’

A second was caught at Springfield, near Gretna, in 1900.