Identification

Unmistakable.

Life cycle

Two generations.

Larval foodplants

Bedstraws.

Habitat

Open grassy areas.

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.