Species Account
Distribution
Summary Data
Season (Adult / Immature):
|
National Status: Local Local Status: Uncommon and thinly distributed or restricted resident. Local Record: Grade 2 See here for explanation Flight time: One generation, Jul-Aug Forewing: 18-27mm. Foodplant: Aspen, poplars, sallows and willows. |
Record breakdown:
VC9 | VC11 | Region | |
---|---|---|---|
Year first recorded | 1905 | 1985 | 1905 |
Year last recorded | 2011 | 2011 | 2011 |
Number of records | 64 | 58 | 244 |
Number of individuals | 65 | 64 | 258 |
Unique positions | 47 | 9 | 112 |
Unique locations | 42 | 7 | 98 |
Adult records | 61 | 57 | 236 |
Immature records | 1 | 0 | 2 |
For the region, we have a total of 244 records from 98 sites. Earliest record on file is in 1905.
Photos
Species Account
For further information refer UK Moths.
Davey, P., 2009: A local and decreasing species in England, most frequent in south-east districts and abundant in London, the larva feeding on sallow and willow (Salix spp.), and poplar (Populus spp.). The moth occasionally reaches pest proportions in North America where, like the Brown-tail2029, it was accidentally introduced. In Dorset, the moth appears to be resident in one locality only, at Hurn on the Moors River where it is trapped every year close to a grove of mature black poplar (Populus nigra) trees. Records from about one hundred years ago indicate that the species was frequent in some years in the Stour and Avon river valleys, with larvae abundant in 1901 and 1912. A colony was also detected in the middle of Swanage on 2 July 1906: "forty-two larvae of varying sizes were collected from the leaves of a western balsam poplar (Populus trichocarpa); hundreds more lay out of reach higher up in the tree" (Reverend E Bankes). All other records, roughly half of the Dorset total, refer either to dispersed examples from outside the county, or to immigrants from northern France or the Low Countries. The species occurs throughout mainland Europe.
See background to species accounts. Index of Vernacular names - Search - Random Species