Species Account

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Distribution

Summary Data

Season (Adult / Immature):

National Status: Local

Local Status: Scarce and restricted resident.

Local Record: Grade 3 See here for explanation

Flight time: Jul-Aug.

Forewing: 15-18mm.

Foodplant: Sea Campion, Thrift, Common Rock-rose.

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	1884	1982	1884
Year last recorded	2011	1996	2011
Number of records	168	4	344
Number of individuals	367	11	756
Unique positions	89	3	184
Unique locations	57	3	120
Adult records	139	4	286
Immature records	0	0	0

For the region, we have a total of 344 records from 120 sites. Earliest record on file is in 1884.

Photos

Species Account

For further information refer UK Moths.

Davey, P., 2009: A species mainly confined to the British coastline, but also found locally inland across southern Britain, the larva feeding on heather (Calluna spp.), trefoil (Lotus spp.), common rock-rose (Heliathemum nummularium), cinquefoil (Potentilla spp.), and other herbaceous plants. In Dorset, the moth colonises two distinctly different A species mainly confined to the British coastline, but also found locally inland across southern Britain, the larva feeding on heather (Calluna spp.), trefoil (Lotus spp.), common rock-rose (Heliathemum nummularium), cinquefoil (Potentilla spp.), and other herbaceous plants. In Dorset, the moth colonises two distinctly different biotypes. The first is damp heathland across the Poole Basin where heather and marsh cinquefoil (Potentilla palustris) are potential host foodplants. The other is the coastal belt of Purbeck, Portland and west Dorset where Fabaceae (vetches, trefoils, pea and clover) species grow in abundance within unimproved calcareous grassland. The moth occurs in the two biotypes in equal numbers, although it is common only very locally. It has yet to be found inland on chalky soils despite the presence of many potential host foodplant species. The Annulet is something of a chameleon as the ground colour of members of a given colony tends to blend in with the tone of their surroundings. Moths are darkest (ab. obscuriorata) on the peaty soils in the mires at Morden Bog, Bryantspuddle Heath and Stoborough Heath, and lightest (ab. calceata) on the chalk cliffs at Arish Mell and Ballard Down.

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