Identification

Care required to separate from other ‘pugs.’

Recording method

Comes to light in small numbers.

Life cycle

Two generations. Overwinters as a pupa. Larvae are present late June to late September.

Larval foodplants

Elder flowers for the first generation, with umbellifers for the next generation.

Habitat

Roadside verges, river banks and ditches, fens, hedgerows and woodland.

History

First recorded for Dumfries and Galloway not until 1962 for VC73 at Palnackie and Rockcliffe by Pelham-Clinton, in 1980 for VC72 at the Waterside Rothamsted light trap and only in 2009 for VC74 at Sorbie by Tony Bellars.