Species Account

Select species and region:

Distribution

Summary Data

Season (Adult / Immature):

National Status: Migrant

Local Status: Scarce and local migrant/wanderer.

Local Record: Grade 3 See here for explanation

Flight time: One generation, Jun-Dec, (mostly Aug-Nov).

Forewing: 50-55mm.

Foodplant: Bindweeds and other Convolvulaceae.

IMPORTANT - Please note that the maps and accounts are provisional, subject to change and further update. The whole dataset still needs to go through the final verification process and it is likely that a very small number of records will not satisfy the present requirements and there are other records that have not been formally submitted. The information is for guidance only.

Record breakdown:

	VC9	VC11	Region
Year first recorded	1886	1976	1886
Year last recorded	2011	2006	2011
Number of records	711	25	1472
Number of individuals	1426	31	2914
Unique positions	102	8	220
Unique locations	78	8	172
Adult records	695	25	1440
Immature records	9	0	18

For the region, we have a total of 1472 records from 172 sites. Earliest record on file is in 1886.

Photos

Species Account

For further information refer UK Moths.

Davey, P., 2009: A strongly migratory species headquartered south of 40°N that ranges from a near annual in southern England, to uncommon in northern Scotland, the larva feeding on field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis). The species does not appear to be able to survive the UK winter in any stage; hundreds of adults and some larvae were recorded in 2006 and yet relatively few were seen the following year. The adult is fond of nectaring at scented flowers from dusk onwards. In Dorset, the moth has been recorded at least once in each of the past twenty years and usually between mid-August and late-October. Very occasionally first brood adults make it to the UK between late-May and mid-July. Larvae are seldom encountered, and even in favourable years tend to be restricted to the coast. The attraction of scented blooms was amply demonstrated in mid-September 1991, when three light traps were placed in the vicinity of the 'Globe'at Durlston. A vase of freshly cut Nicotiana was placed next to one of these, and of the total of twenty-three adults recorded by daybreak, thirteen males and eight females were found within, on and around the 'Nicotiana' trap.

See background to species accounts. Index of Vernacular names - Search - Random Species