Identification

Great care required to separate from The Rustic. The forewing appears granular and rough-scaled. The forewings are richer in colour, often appearing ochreous or yellow-brown, with a well defined median band The reniform stigma contrast with the forewing colour.

If identification is not clear record as Uncertain/Rustic agg. (Hoplodrina agg.)

Recording Method.

Attracted to light, also comes to sugar and flowers.

Life cycle

One generation. Overwinters as a larva during July to April, with pupation underground.

Larval foodplants

Chickweeds, docks and a wide variety of herbaceous plants.

Habitat

Lowland habitats including woodland and gardens.

History

First record was in 1974 from the Rothamsted station at Gatehouse of Fleet (VC73), and from then until 1980, eighty records were recorded there. Other RIS data was of five records from Waterside Mains at Keir (VC72), and five from Newton Stewart (VC74) in the same period with a single from Mabie Forest in 1985.

E. F. Hancock had found it in Kilsture Forest (VC74) in 1989. Of the remaining 150 records, the regularly trapped sites at Kirkton, Kirkcudbright and Old Torr produced 110 of them, with the rest of the records coming from a wide scattering of sites across the region.