Species Account

Select species and region:

Distribution

Summary Data

Season (Adult / Immature):

National Status: Common

Local Status: Abundant and widespread resident.

Local Record: Grade 1 See here for explanation

Flight time: Two generations, May-Aug, Sep, possibly third in October.

Forewing: 15-19mm.

Foodplant: Herbaceous plants.

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	VC5	VC11	Region
Year first recorded	1905	2007	1970	1905
Year last recorded	2011	2007	2011	2011
Number of records	8861	1	517	18758
Number of individuals	185140	1	6255	382792
Unique positions	459	1	34	988
Unique locations	333	1	30	728
Adult records	8128	1	514	17286
Immature records	0	0	0	0

For the region, we have a total of 18758 records from 728 sites. Earliest record on file is in 1905.

Photos

Species Account

For further information refer UK Moths.

Davey, P., 2009: A species often associated with cultivated land and one of the most abundant moth species occurring in England and Wales, but becoming less frequent further north, the larva feeding on a wide range of plant species. In Dorset, the moth is ubiquitous and abundant. In favourable years trap totals are vast, for example, 19000 at Furzebrook in 1976 and 11000 at West Bexington in 1996. The national norm is for a single brood from mid-May to late July, but in Dorset the moth is bivoltine, and in ten of the past twenty-five years, potential third-brood individuals have been trapped during the second half of October. The period between the average theoretical brood peaks is roughly sixty days.

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