See also Moth of the Week (07/09/2019)

Identification

Care required to separate from Copper Underwing.

Identification  requires viewing the underside of the hindwing where the copper colour is in the final third but continues towards the base in the trailing half. To see this the moth needs to be anaesthetised or gently manhandled by grasping the abdomen between forefinger and thumb from the front and prising open the wings to check.

Recording Method.

Attracted to light and also comes readily to sugar.

Life cycle

One generation. Overwinters as an egg. Larvae are present from the middle of April to the end of May, with pupation underground.

Larval foodplants

Oaks, limes, Sallow and Rhododendron.

Habitat

Mainly woodland, but also gardens and hedgerows.

History

Svensson’s Copper Underwing was thought to be a sub-species until it was made a full species in the 1960s.

The first record in D&G was one trapped at Mersehead RSPB on 16th September 1996, with another there ten years later on 18th August. It was also trapped at the adjacent Southwick Coast SWT site in September 1996. At a Grey Daggers Moth Group field meeting at Edingham, another was trapped on 25th August 2006.