Species Account

Select species and region:

Distribution

Summary Data

Season (Adult / Immature):

National Status: Rare migrant

Local Status: Rare, mainly coastal migrant.

Local Record: Grade 4 See here for explanation

Flight time: Jul-Oct.

Forewing: 12-17mm.

Foodplant: Common Nettle other 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	Region
Year first recorded	1992	1992
Year last recorded	2011	2011
Number of records	31	62
Number of individuals	30	60
Unique positions	17	34
Unique locations	15	30
Adult records	30	60
Immature records	0	0

For the region, we have a total of 62 records from 30 sites. Earliest record on file is in 1992.

Photos

Species Account

For further information refer UK Moths.

Davey, P., 2009: A relatively recent immigrant species, the first seen in Essex in 1951, and at least one seen in most years this century. The species was originally resident in eastern Europe and Asia and has spread west and north from the 1920s; it is now resident over much of mainland Europe and Scandinavia, the polyphagous larva feeding on various herbaceous plants including dead nettle sp. (Lamium sp.), nettle (Urtica dioica), chamomiles (Chamaemelum nobile and Anthemis spp.) and mayweeds (Matricaria spp. and Tripleurospermum spp.), wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), although no larvae have yet been found in Britain. In Dorset, the moth has been seen at light traps on nineteen occasions: West Bexington, on 20 October 2001, 17 October 2005, 15 September 2008 (R Eden), Wyke Regis, on 22 September 1988 (P Baker), Weymouth, on 12 June 2006 (Dr P Sterling), Portland, on 19 and 20 October 2001, 28 June 2003, 26 July 2008, 12 September 2008 (M Cade), Preston, on 1 August 2004 (R Lambert), Puddletown, on 3 October 2001, 16 September 2006, 10 October 2006 (H Wood Homer), Winterborne Stickland, on 12 September 2000 (L de Whalley), Winspit, 22 July 2008 (P Davey), Gaunts Common, on 27 August 1992 (P Davey), Swanage, on 30 September 2008 (Reverend E Pratt), Durlston, on 18 October 2008 (M Deans et al). The region of central and western France appears to have sourced the majority of the moths seen across the county.

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